


Bestial

by Qille



Series: The Vengeance Series [13]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Blood, Blood moon, Exsanguination, F/M, Gen, Horror, Shippy, Violence, Werewolves, half romance half horror, here we go again, i tried to make this one kinda spooky, probably the last story in this universe, the enderbeast disaster, there are scary monsters lurking in the dark, this one is more domestic than the others have been, this one is very shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-02 10:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10942734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qille/pseuds/Qille
Summary: Three months after the events of Eternal, the war between the Flux Buddies and the Hats comes to an end. Lalna and Nano move on, but there's something strange about their new world. There's magic in the air and the moon is more powerful than usual, but that's not all. There's something lurking in the forest.





	1. Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I'm so terrible at summaries. This should be a fun story with some creepy stuff thrown in. This is like the hundredth story in this series so if you try and read this one first you'll be hopelessly confused, and for that I apologize. Either way, hope you enjoy the story. Don't get spooped.

Lalna and Nano stood staring at the clearing where their base used to be. The bits of rubble scattered about were all that was left of the home they had built. 

“I have to admit,” said Nano after a few minutes of silence, “that could have gone better...” 

“It's gone...” muttered Lalna. He seemed out of it. “It's all gone.”

Nano looked up at him and put her hand on his arm. “We're still here though,” she said with a reassuring smile. 

After a moment, he seemed to focus again. He looked down at her and smiled. They had both survived the war and emerged completely unharmed, thanks to the poppets Nano had made beforehand. 

They heard a noise from behind, so they turned around. Ross, Trott, and Smiffy were approaching. They were burnt and cut and bruised, and Smiffy had a bandage tied across his left eye. They stopped five feet away from the pair. 

All was silent for a moment before Trott stepped forward and held out his hand. Nano smiled, and she stepped forward and shook Trott's hand.

“Good game, boys,” said Nano. 

“It certainly was,” replied Trott, who still had smoke and the odor of bacon coming off of him. “We learned our lesson. No more throwing bricks through people's windows and sparking a nuclear war.”

“In return, I promise to never curse you again... unless you deserve it.”

“Sounds like a deal,” said the crispy walrus.

They stopped shaking hands and stepped back.

“So are you boys going to join everybody else in the new world?” asked Nano.

“You saw what happened the last time we lived in a world with other people,” mumbled Ross, glancing around. Nano noticed that he was hunched over and clutching his chest as if he were having a hard time breathing. He probably had some broken ribs.

“We found a lovely little pocket world that we would have all to ourselves,” said Smiffy, putting his hands on his hips and revealing a large bloodstain on his shirt that he had been hiding with his arms. “This was fun and all, but I would much rather worry about Trott experimenting on me in my sleep than worry about this maniac planting a nuke under our base.”

He smirked at Lalna when he said this. Lalna looked at the ground, not laughing at Smiffy's joke. 

“Well, I can't say I enjoyed my time with you, but you certainly made it interesting,” admitted Nano.

Smiffy nodded a bit. “Before we go, I feel like I should tell you... that armor you're wearing makes you look fat.” 

Nano smirked. “And that nuke made your base look like a crater.”

Smiffy and Trott laughed loudly, and Ross attempted to laugh, but it only resulted in a small raspy gasping noise followed by a bit of coughing. 

“Touche, little fuck buddy,” laughed Smiffy.

“We'll see you around,” said Trott.

Ross waved goodbye. Then all three of them disappeared as they moved on to their new world. 

Now that the trio were gone, Nano turned to look at Lalna. She could tell he was upset about something. 

“What's wrong?” she asked.

Lalna gave a tense shrug and looked around. “This is another world I contributed to destroying...”

Nano smiled a bit and took his hands in hers. His prosthetic hand was significantly warmer than his organic one. In the back of her mind, she knew it meant that his arm was almost out of coolant and would need to be refilled, but that wouldn't matter soon. 

“Look,” said Nano softly, “you may have made the nukes, but I started the war. This one isn't on you.”

Lalna still looked downcast. “I came really close to destroying this world three months ago.”

Nano frowned. “You mean _Lalnable_ came close to destroying it. You were the one who altered the bomb and saved it.”

“I nearly killed both of us, and it was my... my _clone_ that tried to destroy everything,” Lalna muttered, starting to seem more agitated. “And Ridge ended up dying because of that! It's been three months and we still haven't seen him!”

“Hey, at least nobody died this time,” said Nano quickly. 

Lalna was still for a moment before slowly nodding. “I guess you're right...” 

Nano smiled and pulled him into a tight hug. “Come on, let's get out of here. There's nothing here for us anymore.”

Lalna nodded, and together they stepped out of their old world and into the new one. 

The transition was always a bit disorienting. It had been evening, but in this new world the sun was still high. They had been tired from the fight, but now they were fully clean and refreshed as if the day had just started. Any wounds they may have gotten from the war were gone without a trace, and Lalna's arm was full of coolant again and his thumb no longer squeaked. 

The biggest change was that all of their tools and equipment and armor hadn't traveled with them. They now stood in a breezy field with no weapons or armor, just the clothes on their backs and their respective necklaces, which had a habit of traveling across the worlds with them. Nano's sapphire necklace hung proudly around her neck, and Lalna's amulet containing the powerful Ender crystal was visible. He glanced down and quickly reactivated the protection spell to keep it hidden, and it disappeared from view. 

“Alright then!” exclaimed Nano, looking around and smiling at how warm and pleasant the weather was. “Lomadia told me that her house is nearby. Maybe she can tell us what to expect from this world.”

Nano set off in the direction of Lomadia's house, and Lalna followed, his spirits lifting as the beauty of this new world eased the pain of destroying the last one. 

They arrived at Lomadia's house shortly after. Nano knocked on the door, but they were surprised when Xephos answered. He smiled widely when he saw them

“You're here!” he exclaimed. “It's about time.”

Nano raised an eyebrow. “I was expecting Lomadia to answer the door,” she admitted. 

“She's inside,” said Xephos, gesturing over his shoulder. “We're... well, I guess we're living together.” 

“When did that happen?” asked Lalna mildly.

“When I realized that she's seven months pregnant and might need my help with stuff.”

Lomadia's voice came from further inside the house. “Don't leave them standing out there, let them in!”

Xephos laughed and stepped aside, and Lalna and Nano walked in. They found themselves in a comfortable living room with a few sofas and a table by the window. Lomadia was sitting on one of the sofas, but she stood up when they walked in.

“You two certainly took your time,” said Lomadia. They hadn't seen her in three months, and she had gotten much bigger in that time. 

“We had three loose ends to blow up,” said Nano with a small smile. 

Lomadia laughed. “Well, come sit down, we'll tell you about this world.” 

The three of them sat down at the table while Xephos made everybody tea. 

“You've gotten bigger,” noted Nano as Lomadia gingerly sat down across from her and Lalna. 

“And you're wearing Lalna's clothes,” replied Lomadia. “How far along are you?”

“Five months,” said Nano, taking the tea that Xephos offered her. “Over halfway there.”

“So tell us about this place,” said Lalna. 

“Alright,” said Xephos as he sat down. “Well, the monsters here can be weirdly strong sometimes.”

“There are werewolves too,” added Lomadia. “Most of them only show up on the full moon, but we've seen a couple wandering around just before and after the full moon too.”

“They mostly keep to themselves though,” said Xephos. “I haven't seen any of them as humans, so I guess they all live in the forest.”

“There are also some new types of magic that are unique to this world,” said Lomadia. “I haven't looked at them yet, but there's one that involves lots of flowers. Sounds like something you should be interested in.”

Nano nodded approvingly. It would be a relief to deal with magic that wouldn't explode on her. 

“There's also a lot less mechanical stuff,” said Xephos. “Maybe it's because there's a lot of magic in the air, but the really advanced mechanical stuff doesn't seem to work. Our lights are steam powered.”

Lalna nodded and immediately started planning a way to efficiently harness steam power.

They continued to talk about the new things in the world until it got dark.

“You two should stay here tonight,” said Lomadia. “It's not safe to go out at night. We've got a guest room you can stay in, and we know there's a nice place about 20 minutes away from here where you guys can build a house.” 

Lomadia and Xephos offered them dinner, but Lalna wasn't hungry and Nano was feeling nauseous, so they declined and made their way into the guest room. 

“What a day, huh?” asked Nano as she kicked off her shoes and laid down.

“Yeah,” muttered Lalna as he pulled off his lab coat, boots, and goggles.

Nano frowned at him. “You're really upset about the war, aren't you?”

Lalna sighed and sat down on the bed next to her. “I'm going to miss that world. We had such a good life. Our base was amazing, we spent all day and night doing magic and science together... hell, we even made a baby there. I know it's odd, but that was the first time I really felt a connection to the world we lived in and everything we built.”

Nano took hold of his shirt and pulled it, forcing him to lay down and look at her.

“Hey, I'm gonna miss it too,” she said. “But the thing that really made that place special for me was building it and sharing it with you. This world is different, but it's beautiful. It's simpler. And besides, we may have made a baby in the last world, but I'm going to _have_ it in this world. Focus on that instead.”

Lalna smiled, and the mess of guilt and loss rattling around inside him slowly melted away. For the first time that day, he took a deep breath and relaxed, knowing that Nano was right. As long as they were together, that's what mattered. 

“Don't forget to take your arm off,” said Nano before leaning forward and giving him a quick kiss. 

Lalna carefully removed his prosthetic arm and set it on the bedside table, then he and Nano curled up together and fell fast asleep. 

**XXX**

The next morning, Lalna and Nano set out, heading for the area that Lomadia and Xephos told them about. The found it shortly after, pleasantly surprised to see expansive fields, lush forests, and a beautiful river. Near the river was a small abandoned hut, which took them only an hour to fix and set up as a temporary base while they built their new home. 

Lalna was in a much better mood after a good night of sleep. He was as energetic as usual, and by the time night fell he and Nano had planned out their first building and started laying down the foundations. They decided that this building would serve as their main base at first, but would later be designated a workshop after they had built a house.

Their first night in the hut wasn't as pleasant. Because the little building was only meant as a safe space for them to sleep, it was tiny. Lalna and Nano were only able to fit a small mattress inside, which they both curled up on to sleep. 

There was a new moon that night, meaning the only light came from the stars and the single torch Nano had left outside. That first night was a bit nerve-wracking – they both lay awake for hours after the sun had set, listening to the monsters outside growling and clattering. 

Because of the uneasy sleep, they were both a bit grumpy the next morning. They ate the last of their food and spent half an hour arguing about whether food or shelter was more important. Nano won the argument, so they spent several hours that morning hunting, gathering, and setting up a farm. Nano was nauseous the whole time, and she had to stop every fifteen minutes to catch her breath. Lalna's shoulder was aching because he had forgotten to take his arm off the night before. 

However, after they ate and cleaned up in the river, they both felt much better. The unpleasantness of the morning faded away in the warm afternoon sun, and soon they were both back to their normal happy selves. 

They started working on the building again. Lalna was determined to finish building it because he didn't want to repeat the previous night. However, night fell quickly and Nano – who had watched a scarily strong Creeper obliterate half of a nearby mountain earlier – refused to let Lalna continue to work after dark. They grudgingly returned to the mattress in the hut.

“Y'know, I probably should have made this place a bit bigger,” admitted Lalna as he and Nano sat down on the mattress on the floor. 

Nano shrugged. “At least we have food so we won't be starving in the morning.”

Lalna nodded as his aching shoulder reminded him to take off his arm. There was nowhere to really put it because the hut was so small, so he set it in the corner on top of his lab coat and boots. Neither of them had any spare clothes, and it got too cold at night to sleep without them, so they were forced to sleep in the sweaty dirty clothes they had spent the past two days wearing. Neither of them were very happy about it.

They both curled up on the mattress again. Lalna could see out the single window of the hut – there was a sliver of a moon in the sky tonight, so it was no longer pitch black. The monsters outside also seemed to not be interested in their shack, because there was less noise outside.

Grateful that it would be easier to sleep tonight, Lalna closed his eyes and let himself relax. He was still sore from all the work, but he was also very tired. Just as he started to nod off, however, Nano suddenly gasped and sat upright, clutching her stomach.

“What's wrong?” asked Lalna, suddenly wide awake. He managed to sit upright with a bit of struggle.

“It kicked me!” exclaimed Nano, looking shocked. 

“The baby?” asked Lalna.

“No dumb-ass, the carrot I ate earlier,” snapped Nano with biting sarcasm. “Yes, the baby! I just felt it.”

“Right, sorry,” said Lalna with a laugh. He breathed a small sigh of relief. “I thought there was something wrong.”

Nano didn't look relieved, however. She continued to stare down at her bump, a look of mild concern on her face.

“That was really weird,” she mumbled. “I mean, I've felt it move before, but this is the first time it's actually kicked me...”

Lalna frowned. “That really freaked you out, didn't it?”

Nano nodded, glancing sidelong at Lalna. “With everything that just happened... y'know, the war and the new world and everything... I guess I kinda forgot that I'm pregnant. Or... I forgot about what that means.”

“You mean you were so focused on all the crazy stuff that you forgot that we're going to be parents in a couple months?” asked Lalna quietly. He hated to admit it, but he had forgotten too. 

“Yeah,” said Nano, running her hand through her tangled hair. “I guess this was the first big reminder in a while. It suddenly feels real now.”

Lalna nodded. They were both quiet for a moment, thinking about the fact that in a mere four months their lives would change drastically. 

After a long moment of silence, Lalna spoke up.

“I think you should go stay with Lomadia tomorrow night,” he said. “I can finish the workshop by myself. Besides, I don't want you sleeping on a mattress on the floor.”

Nano nodded. “Good idea. My back is killing me.”

Lalna laughed a bit. “Also, Lomadia can probably help you with the baby stuff.”

Nano smiled. “I'm glad she and Xephos are going to have their baby first. We can learn from their mistakes.”

They both laughed, and with that they were able to relax again. After joking for a few more minutes, they laid down again, facing each other with their baby between them. Within minutes, all three of them were fast asleep. 

**XXX**

The next morning, Nano set off for Lomadia's house, and Lalna continued to work on the base. Half an hour after Nano left, an owl arrived carrying a letter from Nano, which stated that she made it to Lomadia's house and would be staying there until Lalna told her the base was complete. Lalna smiled and continued to work.

It was a very hot day. Lalna tried to be as productive as possible, but the bright sunlight and heat kept giving him headaches, and he would have to take a break nearly every hour. He was glad Nano wasn't out in the heat. 

As the afternoon wore on, the heat slowly became more bearable, and Lalna was able to finish all the walls of the base. The only thing left to do was the roof.

Knowing that the sun was setting and it would soon be too dangerous to continue working, Lalna placed torches inside and outside of the building to keep the monsters away. He had just finished and was standing inside the roofless building admiring his work when the sun set below the horizon.

Out of nowhere, Lalna was hit with unbearable pain in his lower right side. He doubled over and dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.

For a moment, he was certain it was appendicitis, and he started to panic as he realized that he didn't have the tools or medicine needed for an operation. However, the pain began to steadily spread, and he realized something that scared him more than a busted appendix. 

The pain was spreading from his right hip to the center of his chest. It was following his Enderbeast scars.

Forcing himself upright, he carefully lifted his shirt. He could see the three long scars that the mutant Enderman had given him when it attacked and infected him. The scars, like his amulet, followed him through the different worlds. They didn't look different, but when he ran a trembling finger along one of them he confirmed that the pain was following the scars.

Sweating, shaking, and gasping for breath, he frantically looked around. Something about the sky caught his attention. Instead of getting darker, the night sky was becoming lighter. It was turning red.

His heart racing, Lalna dragged himself over to one of the eastern facing windows and looked out. The crescent moon ascending into the sky was a bright blood red. 

As soon as he looked at the blood moon, he began to slightly convulse. He felt something that he hadn't felt in a long time.

The Enderbeast was waking up.

“No...” he moaned, closing his eyes and gasping for breath. The pain intensified, and he fell fully to the ground, his limbs twitching. He opened his eyes and saw that strands of his hair were staring to turn black, and he could feel claws trying to emerge from his fingertips. His prosthetic arm suddenly felt very tight around his shoulder. 

Shaking his head and nearly crying out of fear, he used his prosthetic arm to drag himself into the corner of the room, the whole time trying to suppress the transformation. It was like trying to hold in a sneeze. It was difficult and painful, but after a moment, Lalna realized that he was still in control, if just barely. 

He wedged himself in the corner of the room and somehow managed to pull himself upright. Then, using the blocks he had with him, he surrounded himself, building a tiny shelter. He was plunged into darkness, the only light coming from his now visible amulet which was glowing a violent purple.

Now that he was out of direct sight of the blood moon, he felt the intensity of the Enderbeast die down. It wasn't much, but it was enough to let him completely regain control. His hair returned to blond, his eyes stopped glowing, and the pain began to ease up. He began to breathe normally again, but he wasn't able to relax. Even away from the haunting red glow of the blood moon, the Enderbeast sat waiting in the darkness, ready to break free at any moment.

Lalna held it back all night.

**XXX**

Xephos arrived at the half built workshop a mere fifteen minutes after the blood moon set and the sun rose. He glanced into the shack but saw that Lalna wasn't inside, so he went for the workshop. He opened the door and stepped inside, and his eyes fell on the pile of blocks in the corner.

“Lalna?” he carefully called as he moved towards the blocks. He paused, and sure enough he heard whimpering coming from behind the blocks.

Xephos knelt down and quickly began to pull the blocks away, revealing Lalna, who was curled up in a ball, hugging his knees and shaking. He lifted his head when he saw the light, and Xephos saw that he looked extremely pale and tired.

Xephos held out a hand, and Lalna took it, allowing Xephos to pull him out of his small shelter.

“Are you okay?” asked Xephos, his eyes wide with concern.

Lalna shuddered. “I guess. Last night was... scary...”

Xephos shook his head. “I'm sorry I didn't warn you about the blood moons. We hadn't had one in weeks so it kinda slipped my mind. I didn't even think how it would affect you...”

Lalna gave a small nod. “The blood moon almost woke up the Enderbeast...” he whispered, his voice trembling. “I spent all night holding it back.”

“That must have taken a lot of energy,” said Xephos, trying to hide the twinge of fear he felt at the mention of the Enderbeast.

Lalna nodded. “I'm exhausted... I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

Xephos reached into his inventory and pulled out a bottle of water and a piece of bread. “Here, this might help,” he said, offering the food and water to Lalna.

Lalna took a sip of the water, grimacing as it burned his throat on the way down. However, the burning didn't last long – it seemed to be getting better as the sun climbed through the sky. He started to feel better after eating.

“Thanks for coming to check on me,” said Lalna. A bit of color was starting to return to his face.

Xephos smiled. “I wanted to come check on you as soon as I realized there was a blood moon, but I'm not stupid enough to actually go outside during one so I had to wait it out.”

“Is Nano okay?” asked Lalna.

Xephos nodded. “She fell asleep before it even started, and she slept right through it. I bet she's still asleep now.”

Lalna nodded, relieved that nothing bad had happened. He was also relieved that Nano had been with Xephos and Lomadia in the first place.

Xephos sighed a bit. “Again, I'm sorry for not warning you about the blood moons. I should have known this might happen. The moon is really powerful here for some reason.”

“I noticed,” mumbled Lalna, looking down at the amulet still visibly hanging around his neck. It flickered a bit, also exhausted from a night of holding back the monster.

In the back of his mind, he started to wonder if he and Nano had made the right choice by coming to this world.


	2. Moon Sickness

Nano and Lalna sat on their bed; Lalna had his shirt off, and Nano was examining the flux on his back. 

“I can't see any visible change,” said Nano, looking carefully. “Although there's a chance it might be spreading deeper instead of outwards.”

“I guess that makes sense,” muttered Lalna tiredly. His back had started aching in the fluxed areas the night before, and the pain had prevented him from getting a good night of sleep. 

Nano frowned. Looking closer, she saw that there were actually some bruises around the infected area. 

“How's your hand?” asked Nano, glancing over Lalna's shoulder. He held up his left hand, which was still covered in purple veins of flux. 

Nano stood up from the bed and walked around, standing in front of Lalna. She took his face in her hands and turned his head to the side. She could see the streaks of purple in his neck, where they stretched up across his eyes. Luckily, the infection hadn't gotten worse in the past three months. The Eternal bloom had done its job well; it had not only gotten rid of the crystallized flux keeping them in stasis, but it had also removed about half of the original flux from their bodies. Nano had been able to control it for a long time, but after the Eternal bloom removed a lot of it, it became much easier. She also hadn't heard Mother's voice since the incident. 

Lalna, however, had never been able to control the flux. While Nano was able to heal herself from the damage done by the flux, Lalna wasn't; instead of healing, his conditioned remained the same as it had been before the incident with the bomb. Now Nano was starting to worry that it would relapse.

With a small sigh, she shook herself out of her thoughts. “It doesn't look like it has gotten any worse,” she said. “We'll keep an eye on it though. Let me know if it keeps hurting.”

Lalna smiled and nodded, reassured by how nonchalant Nano had sounded. If she wasn't worried, then he wasn't either. He stood up and put his shirt back on.

Nano stepped over to the window and glanced out. It had been two weeks since the blood moon, and they had made a lot of progress in that time. Their workshop was complete and fully operational, they had a comfortable house which they were in at the moment, and Nano could look out the second story windows and see her magic hut, with all of her flowers planted around. Behind the hut, she could see the chocobo pen. The weather looked beautiful outside.

Together, she and Lalna went outside and walked across her garden to the hut and the pen.

“So, do you think any werewolves are going to show up?” asked Nano. “I know it's a full moon tonight.”

Lalna gave a small shrug, suddenly looking nervous. 

“What's wrong?” asked Nano, stopping.

Lalna glanced around, not wanting to meet her eye. “I'm worried about the full moon. I'm scared it might make me transform...”

“I mean, that's an understandable concern, especially after what happened to you during the blood moon,” admitted Nano. “Do you think the full moon is going to be worse than the blood moon?”

Lalna shrugged. “I think I'm going to barricade myself in the workshop tonight, just in case.”

Nano frowned. “I don't think that's a good idea. Things seem to be worse for you when you're alone. How about this. Tonight is the first full moon. Each moon cycle lasts three days, right? That means tomorrow night will be the true full moon, so we can use tonight as a test run. Stay with me and see how you feel, and if you have trouble then we'll lock you up for the actual full moon.”

Lalna thought about it for a moment. He didn't like the idea of testing this in the same room as Nano, out of concern that he would transform and injure her, but he could see that he had no other option. Nano wouldn't let him be alone for this.

“Alright,” he said after a minute. “Let's do it.”

**XXX**

Night seemed to fall quickly after that. As soon as the sun started to set, Lalna ushered the chocobos into their pen and locked them up, not wanting any werewolves to attack them. Nano planted a few flowers around the pen that would injure any monster that came near. Then they both headed inside.

Lalna started to pace nervously, constantly glancing out the window. After a while, Nano grabbed him and dragged him into the kitchen.

“Help me make dinner,” she said, handing him his favorite apron and a string to tie his hair back. Lalna smiled and put on his apron, which was pink and said “Kiss the Cook” across the front. He tied his hair back and got to work.

They spent half an hour cooking before Lalna suddenly stopped, looking a bit confused.

“What's wrong?” asked Nano.

“I just noticed that I can feel it,” said Lalna, his expression curious. 

“The Enderbeast?” 

Lalna nodded. “It's weird. It's like I'm aware of its presence, but it's not doing anything.”

Nano raised an eyebrow. “So... does that mean you're fine?”

Lalna glanced out the window. The full moon was shining brightly in the sky, and he was looking directly at it, yet he barely felt anything stronger than a twinge from the Enderbeast. 

He smiled. “I'm fine. I guess my amulet is still doing its job.” 

Both of them were extremely relieved that he wouldn't require a monthly incarceration. They finished cooking and ate their dinner, laughing and joking, the mood light. After they finished eating, they moved over to the couch and sat talking. After a while though, Lalna started talking less and less. 

About one hour after the sun had set, Nano noticed that Lalna was looking pale, and his eyes were unfocused.

“Are you okay?” she asked him, stopping in the middle of the story she had been telling.

Lalna looked a bit shocked at the abrupt end to the story. “Yeah, I'm fine,” he said, his voice a bit strained. “Still no danger from the Enderbeast, but I'm starting to get a headache.”

Nano frowned. “I guess it is getting late. Why don't you head upstairs and I'll grab some pain medicine. It's strong stuff, too. I use it for migraines.” 

Lalna nodded and then grimaced. “Yeah, that would be helpful. This is definitely starting to hurt more than a normal headache.”

Nano stood and went into the kitchen to look for the medicine, while Lalna stumbled upstairs. While she was looking for it, however, she heard a loud _thump_ from upstairs.

As fast as she could, she climbed the stairs and ran into their room. Lalna had passed out on the bed – the loud noise had been his arm falling off and hitting the floor. Nano could see that he was pale and sweating, clearly in pain from the headache. 

She went over and knelt down on the bed next to him.

“Lalna?” she whispered, gently shaking his shoulder. “Can you hear me?”

He groaned a bit, his face half buried in blankets. “If I open my eyes, I think I'll throw up...” he moaned.

Nano sighed a bit. “Alright, well keep your eyes closed and scoot up a bit. Then you'll actually be on a pillow.”

Lalna gave a small thumbs up and slowly tried to push himself upright. However, he seemed to have forgotten that he had taken his arm off, because he almost pushed himself off the side of the bed. After a minute of this, Nano grabbed him by the torso and dragged him into a more comfortable position. She threw a blanket over him and went back downstairs to look for medicine.

She looked for five minutes before remembering that she didn't actually have any. All of her migraine medicine was back in the world they had just left, in the base that had been destroyed. She could easily make more, but she needed to go outside to get the ingredients, which she couldn't do at night. Lalna would have to make it through the night without pain medicine.

With a frustrated sigh, Nano grabbed some cloth and a bowl, which she filled with cold water. She brought them upstairs, set the bowl on the bedside table, dipped the cloth in, and laid is across Lalna's forehead. When she did this, he blinked his eyes open, looking dazed.

“So uh... I figured there would be some side effects from the full moon,” he muttered, looking up at her. “This is a bit different than what I expected.”

Nano smiled at him. “Well, it could have been much worse.”

“Agreed,” said Lalna dryly. “Did you find any medicine?”

Nano shook her head. “No, I forgot that the last time I made medicine was in the other world. I'll make some tomorrow morning, and you can take it when it gets dark.”

Lalna smiled and closed his eyes again. “You're the best...” he mumbled. “What would I do without you?”

“You would probably die,” said Nano, taking the cloth and dipping it in the water again. This time she laid it across his eyes. “Try and get some sleep. You'll feel better as soon as the moon sets.”

If Lalna nodded, she didn't see it. A moment later, he was asleep. Nano removed the cloth and put it back in the bowl, then she went to the other side of the bed and laid down. She knew that, no matter what world they lived in, Lalna always had nightmares on the full moon. However, she also knew that holding him while he slept was the best way to ease the nightmares.

Gently so as not to disturb him, she carefully pulled him closer. He shifted in his sleep and turned towards her, curling up on his side and facing her. She wrapped her arms around him and tucked his head under her chin, so that his face was pressed against her chest, and her growing stomach was against his ribs. It was getting a bit awkward to sleep like this because of how big she was getting, but she was still able to make it work. Holding him like this always seemed to make the nights easier for him.

Sure enough, Nano woke up several hours later to the sound of Lalna gasping and the feeling of him jumping a bit. However, when he realized that everything was okay and that Nano was holding him, he instantly calmed down and quickly went back to sleep. Nano felt the baby stretch a bit, and it too went back to sleep. She followed shortly after. 

**XXX**

Nano woke up bright and early the next morning. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she looked at Lalna, who had just woken up as well. He slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“Good morning,” yawned Nano. Lalna groaned in response. “How do you feel?”

“I think I want to sleep for a few more days,” mumbled Lalna, putting on his arm so that he could massage his temples. 

“Does your head still hurt?” asked Nano, sitting up as well.

“No, not really,” said Lalna. “But my eyes are still really sensitive to the light, and I have no energy.”

Nano put her hand on his shoulder, and he leaned closer to her out of habit. “I didn't hear you scream last night,” she said. “Were the nightmares not as bad as usual?”

Lalna shook his head. “No, they were better than usual. Maybe it's because I was so exhausted from the migraine, my mind wasn't able to come up with the usual horrors.”

Nano nodded. “So... I guess that means we don't have to lock you up for the full moon tonight, right?”

Lalna smiled at her. “I guess so. I just have to load up on pain medicine instead.”

“Which reminds me, we need to actually make medicine today,” said Nano, slowly getting out of bed. “But first, we should eat breakfast. I'm starving.”

**XXX**

A few hours later, Nano and Lalna were back inside. Nano had gathered all of the flowers and herbs she needed to make a big batch of pain medicine, and Lalna had finished taking care of the chocobos. It certainly looked like a werewolf or two had stopped by, but Nano's flowers had held them back, as evidenced by the frantic paw prints in the mud. None of the chocobos had been harmed in the night.

Nano and Lalna sat at their table mixing up medicine, which Nano was putting in a small jar labeled “Moon Sickness Medicine.” They were almost finished when there was a knock at the door.

Lalna glanced at Nano before standing up and opening the door. Xephos, Honeydew, and Lomadia were waiting on the other side.

“Surprise!” exclaimed Honeydew, stepping into the house and pulling Lalna into a big hug. 

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Lalna with a laugh.

“We came to check on you two and see if you were okay after the full moon,” said Lomadia, who was clearly out of breath from the walk. 

“Come inside and we'll tell you what happened last night,” said Lalna, stepping aside to let them in.

“You guys can sit here,” said Nano, capping the last bottle and standing from the table.

“I don't want to take your seat!” exclaimed Honeydew.

Nano shook her head. “Don't worry, that chair was making my back hurt. I'm going to sit over there.” She gestured to the sofa, where Lomadia had just sat down.

The boys sat down at the table and started to talk about what happened last night, while Nano put the medicine in the cabinet and went to sit down next to Lomadia, who was leaning back and apparently trying very hard to catch her breath.

“Are you okay?” asked Nano as she took her seat.

Lomadia nodded. “I'm fine. I just get out of breath if I walk for more than five minutes.”

Nano grimaced. “I haven't gotten to that point yet, and I am not looking forward to it.”

Lomadia laughed. “It's not too bad, although I've gotten to the point where I can't see my toes anymore.”

Nano looked sour. “To be honest, I hate being pregnant. I can't wait until this is over. The only reason I'm really going through with this is because of Lalna.”

Lomadia looked curious. “What do you mean?”

Nano sighed. “He knows that I never really wanted kids, and that I'm horrified and disgusted by anything related to pregnancy. After I told him, he told me that it was completely my choice, if I wanted to go through with it or not. Obviously I didn't want to go through with it at first, but I kept remembering the look on his face when I told him. He was so happy, and even though he told me he would be fine if I didn't keep it, I knew he was lying.” She paused. “Whenever things get tough, I remember the look on his face, and it reminds me why I chose to do this.”

Lomadia smiled. “Look at the bright side,” she said. “I'm going to have my baby first, so you can learn from my mistakes.”

Nano laughed. “Or if we ever find out where Rythian and Zoeya went, we can ask them.”

They both laughed for a bit before settling down. The boys were still talking, but Nano didn't bother to tune in to what they were saying.

“So...” said Lomadia, after a minute, “how's your baby doing?” Her tone was different.

Nano raised an eyebrow. “Fine, I think. How about yours?”

Lomadia bit her lip. “I think he's okay... I only feel him move once or twice a day. How often does yours move?”

The baby kicked Nano in the ribs before she could answer.

“I don't think it stops moving unless it's asleep,” grumbled Nano, grimacing as the baby continued to kick her in places that weren't used to being kicked. 

Lomadia nodded a bit, looking slightly concerned. She kept running her hand over her bump, which looked to be a bit smaller than average. 

“Do you think it's because of the sleeping potion?” asked Nano quietly.

Lomadia nodded. “I shouldn't have done that...”

“If you hadn't done that, your baby wouldn't have a father right now,” said Nano sternly.

“I'm worried he'll be stillborn,” whispered Lomadia. It was clear that this was the first time she said this out loud. She looked relieved that she had shared her concern.

“Worrying will only make things worse,” said Nano.

“Do you think I should tell Xephos about the potion?” asked Lomadia.

Nano paused. “Maybe... wait until after the kid's born.”

Lomadia smiled. “Thanks. I've been keeping those thoughts bottled up for a while. It feels good to talk about them.”

Nano gave a reassuring nod, and their conversation drifted off. She started listening to what the boys were saying.

“Yeah, we definitely have a werewolf problem,” Xephos was saying. “Every morning after a full moon, we wake up and half of our farm animals have been slaughtered.”

“Have you tried using Wolfsbane?” asked Lalna.

“We're in the process of growing some,” grumbled Xephos, clearly not pleased with his lack of botany skills. “It should be ready by the next full moon.”

Honeydew laughed a bit. “Yeah, but he couldn't tell the difference between Wolfsbane and Enderbane, so he's growing both to see what works.”

Xephos nodded. “I mean, we aren't entirely sure that werewolves are the ones doing the killing. Most of the attacks happen on a true full moon, but we've had some attacks happen a few days before or after one. But for now, the werewolves are the most likely culprit.”

“That's strange that the attacks don't always happen on a full moon,” said Lalna curiously. “Is it possible that there's a pack of feral werewolves that are in wolf form at all times?”

“Honestly, that's probably exactly what it is,” said Honeydew, nodding. “We just have to find their cave, if that's the case.”

At that point, Xephos glanced out the window and noticed that the sun was sinking low on the horizon.

“Oh shit, it's getting late,” he exclaimed, standing up. “We better go. Good luck with the full moon tonight.”

They said goodbye, and a few minutes later they had gone.

After closing the door, Lalna joined Nano on the couch.

“Werewolves, huh?”

Nano nodded. “I've been looking into the witchcraft here, and it's a lot like the stuff from the last world, but there are new werewolf and vampire related curses.”

“You mean the kind of werewolf curse that you can actually control, and not the kind you get from being bitten?” asked Lalna.

“Exactly,” said Nano knowingly. “And I wonder if lycanthropy would help with your moon sickness.”

Lalna nodded. “We should try it, but... maybe after the baby's born.”

“Yeah,” agreed Nano, “messing with potentially deadly and dangerous witchcraft while pregnant is probably a bad idea... Speaking of which, you know what's going on with Lomadia, right?”

“Mostly,” said Lalna. “I know she used a sleeping potion to get to the spirit world and save Xephos, and she's worried the potion she used affected her baby. She didn't tell me any of this, but I knew she was thinking it. And to be honest, it's not normal for a baby to move so little, and she looks smaller than average.”

“Do you think they'll be okay?”

Lalna nodded, looking confident. “I'm sure she and her baby will both be fine.”

Nano felt more relieved. However, she quickly changed the subject because she didn't want to think about the fact that she and Lalna would soon have a baby to worry about.

They started to talk about what to do for dinner. Lalna started to talk about a new recipe he had thought up, but as he talked, Nano noticed that he was getting paler and paler. Just as she was about to say something, he stopped talking.

“That's weird...” he muttered, glancing down at his hand. “My... my vision just went blurry.”

Nano glanced out the window. The sun hadn't even hit the horizon yet.

The next thing she knew, Lalna was curled up in the fetal position, clutching his head and moaning in pain. 

“Lalna!” exclaimed Nano, jumping to her feet.

Lalna had his face buried in a pillow. “Holy fuck...” he muttered. “This is the end. I'm going to die.”

“Just keep your eyes closed,” said Nano quietly, throwing a blanket over him. “Let me make some food real quick. You can't take the medicine on an empty stomach or it won't stay down.”

“I think I'm going to throw up anyways...” groaned Lalna, shaking as he clutched his head. “H-has the sun even set yet?”

Nano looked out the window. “It's going to set in a few minutes.”

Lalna groaned again. He started to say something, but he suddenly went quiet. Nano realized that he had lost consciousness. As carefully as she could, she moved him onto his back, then she grabbed a cold wet cloth from the kitchen and laid it across his eyes. He didn't have a fever, but he was shaking and covered in a cold sweat. 

Listening carefully in case he woke up, Nano went into the kitchen and quickly made a pot of soup. She spooned out a bowl and loaded it with as much pain medicine as she safely could.

She went back into the living room with the bowl and saw that Lalna was regaining consciousness. He had his hand pressed over the cold cloth over his eyes. His breathing was shaky and he was still very pale. 

“Lalna,” she whispered, carefully sitting down next to him.

“I'm awake...” he mumbled, his words slurred.

“Good,” she said. “I made soup and loaded it up with migraine medicine. Open your mouth, don't move, and try not to vomit.”

Lalna did as he was told, and Nano was able to get him to swallow half of the bowl before he stopped her.

“Hold on, I... I'm actually feeling better,” he said, slowly taking the cloth off. He blinked, but luckily the light was now dim and the room was dark now that the sun had set. “That medicine certainly works fast.”

Nano smiled as Lalna slowly sat upright. He was still pale, but already it looked like the medicine was taking the edge off of the migraine. 

“Here,” said Nano, handing him the bowl, “finish that. It should last you through the night. Then once you're done with that and safely upstairs, I made some sleeping medicine. I thought it would help with your nightmares.”

Lalna smiled widely. “Brilliant,” he exclaimed. “I've never actually tried sleeping medicine before.” The color was returning to his face.

Nano nodded before jumping a bit. “The Enderbeast?” she asked quickly.

Lalna shook his head. “Not a problem. Although I think it's causing the headaches. But the Enderbeast itself isn't doing anything.”

Nano breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. At least we know we don't have to lock you up for full moons.”

Lalna nodded. “Yeah, I just need to start taking medicine an hour before sunset to make the headaches manageable.” 

Nano laughed. “Oh, you poor thing, having to take pain medicine every month to handle extreme pain. I can't imagine what that must be like.”

Lalna snorted, almost spilling his soup. “Shut up,” he said while trying not to laugh. 

Together, they finished the rest of their soup and went upstairs. After getting ready for bed, Nano gave Lalna the sleeping medicine she had made, and he was asleep within five minutes. Knowing that he wouldn't have nightmares, she laid down next to him and easily fell into a peaceful sleep.

**XXX**

Xephos woke up bright and early the next morning. Yawning, he glanced over at Lomadia, who was still fast asleep, her arm thrown over his chest. She was snoring, and she had moved around so much in her sleep that she had nearly pushed Xephos off the bed.

Carefully, Xephos managed to get out of bed without waking her. He silently got dressed and walked out into their living room. From there, he could hear Honeydew snoring away in the guest room.

Taking care not to wake the others, Xephos picked up his sword and walked outside, heading around to the back of the house to check on the animals. 

The reason Honeydew was currently asleep inside was because he had helped Xephos build a large barn to keep the animals safe – they had completed it the night before the full moon.

As he approached the barn, he saw that the doors were still intact. However, he also saw that there were claw marks around the doors, and even one or two higher up, close to the roof.

“Wow, those werewolves can certainly jump...” muttered Xephos, looking up at the claw marks. It was clear one or two of them had tried to get onto the roof.

Carefully, Xephos opened the door and peered inside. He let out a breath he had been holding – all of the animals were safe. The cows and pigs were waking up, and the chickens were clucking about. Xephos opened the door to let them out so they could graze.

Relieved that the animals were safe, Xephos started to walk the perimeter fence to check for damage. When he reached the area of the fence bordering the forest, he was shocked to find a dead werewolf, laying several feet beyond the fence. He could see large claw marks all over its body. It looked like it had been killed in a fight with another werewolf, one that had been much larger than this one. 

With a disgruntled sigh, Xephos headed back to the house so he could grab a shovel and dispose of the body. He didn't bother to inspect it closely, but if he had, he would have noticed that the body of the werewolf had been partially eaten, and its entire body had been drained of blood.


	3. Red Nights

Three days after the last full moon, another blood moon hit. 

Lalna and Nano were up late, busy in their workshop. They weren't paying any attention to the sky outside. Instead, they were both hunched over a crafting bench, drawing up blueprints for another project. 

“I'm telling you, dinosaurs are a fantastic idea!” exclaimed Lalna.

Nano shook her head. “I may not have been around the first time you resurrected dinosaurs, but I heard the stories. Some say there are still Velociraptors on the loose.”

Lalna laughed. “Okay, look, I know everybody _said_ it was a disaster, but nobody-”

He suddenly stopped with a gasp and hunched over, clutching his side; at that exact moment, Nano's nose started to bleed.

“What the hell?” Nano exclaimed, both shocked by Lalna's sudden movement and her own nose, which was slowly dripping blood. 

All the color had drained from Lalna's face. He suddenly forced himself upright, gasping for breath. Faster than Nano thought possible, Lalna ran to the doors and locked them before putting chairs under the handles. Then he sprinted over to the corner of the room and pulled out some blocks, clearly trying to barricade himself.

“Lalna, what are you doing?” exclaimed Nano, rushing over and grabbing him to prevent him from entombing himself. She could feel that he was shaking, so she dragged him over to the bench against the wall and sat him down.

“Focus,” she said, ignoring her nosebleed. “Tell me what's happening.”

“It's a blood moon!” stammered Lalna, his voice a terrified whisper. 

Nano's eyes widened. She hadn't actually experienced a blood moon, having slept through the last one. 

Lalna shook his head. “This is bad...” he muttered. “The last blood moon I went through was just a _crescent_ moon, and that nearly made me transform! What if this bigger moon makes it worse?”

Nano took his hands. “Okay, try and calm down. I'm here now, and I'm going to help you through this. Tell me what the Enderbeast is doing.”

Lalna gulped and closed his eyes, his breathing still shallow. “My... my scar hurts. It did that last time, and that's how I knew there was going to be a blood moon... Uh, I can feel the Enderbeast, but it's okay for now because we're not directly in the light of the moon.”

He gave a small gasp of pain and doubled over, almost to the point where he fell into Nano's lap. “It's starting to really hurt...”

In response, Nano stood up and went over to the windows. Looking out, she could see the large blood moon still hanging low over the horizon, turning the whole world red. Staring at it gave her a sour taste in her mouth. She reached up and closed the curtains, blocking out the red light. 

After closing all of the curtains and making sure none of the moonlight could get in, she went back and sat down next to Lalna, who had forced himself back upright with shaking arms. The color was now completely gone from his face, and he had broken out in a cold sweat.

“Is that better?” asked Nano as she brushed some of the hair out of his eyes. 

Lalna bit his lip and nodded. Already, there was something different about this blood moon. It didn't seem to be getting worse. He started to wonder if it was because there was actually a roof over his head this time, or if it was because Nano was sitting next to him. Her hand was now resting on his back, and just the physical contact seemed to ground him. 

“Thank you,” said Lalna, his voice already sounding less shaky. “This one hasn't been nearly as bad as the last one.”

Nano smiled at him. “Anything else that can help keep you in check?”

Lalna thought for a moment, but before he could come up with anything, he was distracted by Nano's nosebleed. There was still blood slowly dripping onto her shirt, but she didn't seem to notice.

“Here,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a spare bit of cloth, which he handed to Nano. “Keep that on your nose, it should stop the bleeding.”

Nano looked a bit surprised, as if she had forgotten that her nose was bleeding. She took the cloth and pressed it against her face.

Lalna nodded, but before he could say anything he was hit with another wave of pain. It didn't seem to be getting any worse, however. 

“Are you okay?” asked Nano, noticing his pain.

Lalna gave a small nod. “Yeah... it's not getting any worse.”

Nano looked a bit concerned. She put her free hand on his chest and felt his heartbeat. “You should try and calm down a bit. Your pulse just got really high.”

Lalna felt himself shaking. “If' I relax it might get away from me!” he exclaimed, suddenly extremely distressed. “How am I supposed to calm down when I'm so worried that I'll Change and hurt you?”

Seeing that Lalna was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Nano did something she knew would calm him down. She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her stomach, right in the spot where the baby had been kicking her for the past ten minutes. Sure enough, it kicked again, right where Lalna's hand was. 

Almost immediately, Lalna calmed down. The tension left his body and most of the color quickly returned to his face. His breathing and heart rate slowly returned to normal. In that split second, Nano could tell that the Enderbeast was suddenly no longer a threat. 

After a moment of silence, Nano spoke.

“Lalna? How do you feel?” she asked cautiously.

He smiled at her. “I'm okay. Honestly, I can barely feel the Enderbeast anymore. You were right, though. It really is worse when I'm alone.”

Nano smiled and breathed a long sigh of relief. She hadn't realized how tense she had been. 

After a while, they decided that it wasn't worth the risk of running back to the house, so they stayed in the workshop for the rest of the night. The Enderbeast occasionally gave Lalna pain, especially in his scars, but it was clearly not a danger. 

“This is good,” said Nano after an hour. Her nose had stopped bleeding, and Lalna was measuring her for maternity clothes – the clothes she had on were getting too tight. 

“What is?” asked Lalna as he measured the length of her arms. 

“The blood moons,” said Nano. “As long as you're inside and with me, they're not a problem.”

Lalna smiled widely. “I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “And since my Enderbeast scars start hurting before the moon actually rises, they're like my early warning system. That way we'll never be caught unaware.”

Nano nodded. “Smart,” she said, glancing over to the window. A bit of red light was peeking through the curtains. “What do you think causes them?”

Lalna had been distracted writing down a measurement on his notepad. “What?”

“What do you think causes the blood moons?” asked Nano.

Lalna only shrugged. “I don't know. It's got to be something related to the magic in this world. I mean, it can't be a coincidence that the moons are really powerful and lycanthropy thrives here.”

Nano frowned a bit. “I can understand the werewolf magic affecting the full moons, but it doesn't quite line up with the blood moons. To me, that seems more like Sanguine magic.”

Lalna looked up at her. “You mean vampire stuff?” Nano nodded. “Well, I guess that would make sense. It is a _blood_ moon after all.” 

“And something about the blood moon makes all the monsters in the world more powerful, including the one inside of you,” stated Nano. “I wonder what a blood moon would do to a vampire.”

Lalna shrugged. “Next time I meet one, I'll ask. Then again, I doubt we'll meet one any time soon. I did a bit of exploring, and we're surrounded by rivers. Vampires can't cross moving water.”

“Where did you hear that?” asked Nano, her voice carrying a hint of superstition. 

“In one of _your_ books,” said Lalna, a hint of triumph in his voice. “You take a lot of naps and I get bored easily, so I've been reading up on some of your magic stuff.”

Nano laughed. “Well, at least you do your research.”

Lalna smiled at her, and he continued to work, only occasionally stopping to wait out a wave of pain from his scars. They knew they wouldn't be able to sleep that night because of how much noise the monsters outside were making, but at least the Enderbeast wasn't giving them any trouble. 

They worked through the night without a problem.

**XXX**

Xephos and Lomadia sat in their living room, joined by Honeydew. The dwarf had shown up the night before, claiming that he simply felt like visiting. Xephos had the sneaking suspicion that dwarves could somehow sense blood moons before they happened.

It was late in the evening, and they were all having trouble sleeping because of the blood moon. Not only did it make the monsters outside louder and more aggressive, but it also had a habit of inducing insomnia. 

Honeydew was telling a story about how, on one of his recent solo adventures, he had escaped the clutches of a vengeful wyvern, when something strange happened. He stopped talking and looked out the front window.

“What's that?” he muttered, moving over to the window. Xephos and Lomadia stood and followed him.

They watched with curiosity and a bit of fear as a large pack of werewolves came sprinting out of the forest, hauling ass like death itself was chasing them. They watched the werewolves disappear over the hills, but they couldn't see anything giving chase. Whatever had scared them was still in the forest somewhere.

Suddenly, Lomadia gave a small gasp and stepped back, clutching her stomach.

“What is it?” exclaimed Xephos, snapping to attention.

“The baby just started freaking out and kicking the shit out of me,” gasped Lomadia as she tried to catch her breath. 

Xephos helped her sit down on the sofa, and he started talking in a low, calm voice, trying to get the baby to settle down. After a few minutes, it went still and stopped mercilessly kicking Lomadia. 

Honeydew stood by the window while this was happening. He couldn't help but wonder if the same thing that had scared the werewolves had somehow just frightened Lomadia's baby. He shuddered at the thought of something that was so terrifying and dangerous that even an unborn baby could sense it. 

They went to their respective rooms an hour later, all of them lying awake and pretending to sleep. Nothing came out of the forest for the rest of the night, but several times Honeydew swore he heard howling.

It was a howl that didn't belong to wolves.


	4. Mazes and Monsters

Xephos was extremely groggy when he woke up the next morning. It had taken him hours to fall asleep due to the blood moon, and he assumed that he only got about two hours of sleep. It was still early in the morning, and the sun was hanging low in the red-tinged sky. Lomadia lay passed out next to him, snoring loudly. 

Yawning and rubbing his eyes, he got up and got dressed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep while the sun was up. When he walked out of his room, he saw Honeydew sitting at the kitchen table, still looking half asleep.

“Good morning,” muttered Xephos wearily. Honeydew slowly blinked at him, taking almost a full minute to register the fact that Xephos was now in the room. 

“There's... no coffee... in this house...” Honeydew slowly murmured, having to clearly force each word out as if they were solid. 

Xephos shrugged. “Lomadia can't drink it until after she gives birth, so she thought it was only fair that I suffer along with her.” 

“That doesn't mean I have to suffer,” Honeydew muttered through a yawn. 

Xephos laughed a bit and shook his head. “Come outside with me. I have to check on the animals, and walking usually helps wake me up a bit.”

Honeydew gave a long sigh before heaving himself onto his feet and following Xephos out the door. They went around the back of the house and headed for the barn. When they got close, however, they saw something that made them stop in their tracks.

“Well, I'm certainly awake now,” mumbled Honeydew.

A huge section of the barn was completely missing, as if it had been torn off. There were chunks of wood scattered everywhere, and the roof had been torn to shreds. The inside of the barn was splattered with blood, and Xephos felt a pang of sadness when he saw that none of the animals remained except the chickens.

“Why did it ignore the chickens?” whispered Xephos dejectedly.

Honeydew gave a small shrug. “Whatever did this was obviously enormous. Maybe the chickens were too small for the thing to catch and eat.”

Xephos frowned and felt a bubble of anger rising inside of him. He wanted to know what was responsible.

“Go get your axe,” he suddenly said to Honeydew. “This thing left a trail of blood, and I want to know what it is.”

Honeydew stared at him. “You want to follow the thing that did _that_?” he exclaimed, pointing towards the edge of the forest twenty feet away. Xephos looked to see what he was pointing at, and he saw the missing chunk of the barn lodged in the trees about fifty feet above the ground, where it had clearly been thrown. 

Surprisingly, this didn't deter him. “Whatever did this obviously just spent the entire night destroying my barn and dragging off all of my pigs and cows. It's probably asleep by now. If we can sneak up on it and kill it, then I can finally sleep at night without worrying about this thing turning on the house next.” 

Honeydew thought about it for a moment before nodding, his expression determined. He went back inside to retrieve his axe, then he and Xephos set off into the woods, following the trail of blood the beast had left. 

They followed the trail for quite a while. As they walked, Xephos started seeing fewer and fewer places he recognized. They were soon in the parts of the forest he had never been to before. 

For a while, he and Honeydew talked, catching up on the activities of the other and making sure all was well. After a while though, they noticed something eerie. The natural noises of the forest slowly became few and far between. The deeper they went, the quieter it got, and soon they couldn't hear a single bird or insect or animal. The trees had started to become so dense that light was having a difficult time getting through, and there was almost no wind.

They had been walking in this ominous twilight for nearly ten minutes when they reached the end of the blood trail. What stood before them was a large cave, which opened to reveal a dark crevice in the ground. Honeydew had seen land formations like this before – they were usually caused by a small cave-in over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and caverns. This cave looked like the entrance to a maze with a monster in the center. 

While Honeydew knew that this shallow cave was a naturally occurring landmark, he couldn't help but shiver. Maybe it was the darkness and stillness of the air, but something ominous and unnatural radiated from within the dark cave. It was almost as if the very air radiated horror and tension. They were not welcome here.

Honeydew and Xephos looked at each other. They didn't speak – it was far too quiet for that – but they could see in each others eyes that they were both terrified. They had found the home of the monster that haunted Xephos and his home on moonlit nights. The thing that had surely terrified the pack of werewolves and Lomadia's unborn baby the night before. The thing that had enough brute strength to nearly rip an entire barn in half. 

They stood at its front door, and they had no idea if it was home. 

Xephos wasn't sure what made him do it, but he slowly walked into the cave and climbed down into the crevice in the cave floor. Honeydew followed him without a word, and they both stood as close together as possible.

The same thought echoed through their minds: _We shouldn't be here..._

Xephos reached out and took Honeydew's hand, and together they slowly moved forward, Xephos' glowing eyes providing their only source of light. 

The tunnel they were in was large and had an echo, amplifying the sounds of their quiet footsteps. As they slowly crept forward, Honeydew glanced down one of the smaller side tunnels that branched off from the main one. He saw that it led to a small cave that was nearly full of bones. Some of the bones were still bloody. 

While Honeydew looked down the branching tunnels, Xephos observed the stone walls of the main tunnel they were currently creeping through. As soon as his eyes adjusted, he saw long deep claw marks all over the walls. He spotted a few large teeth that had been shed from the monster. He was too afraid to pick one of them up, but he saw that it was curved and extremely sharp, and it was bigger than his forearm.

The strangest thing was that Xephos had seen teeth like this before, but he couldn't remember where. 

They continued down the sloping tunnel, holding their breath and trying to move as quietly as possible. They hadn't heard anything so far except the wind that seemed to come from deep within the tunnel. 

They only managed to walk a few more feet before stopping. The light had now grown too dim to see, and they were too scared to light a torch and continue. Instead, they both stood still and listened.

Honeydew had grown up underground, so he was extremely familiar with caves. This one seemed very different. The wind was the only sound he could hear – there were no bats, or signs that any normal cave dwelling creatures lived here. He also couldn't hear the familiar _drip, drip, drip_ of water that was so common in caves and tunnels. After a moment, he realized that the cave was extremely dry, and surprisingly hot. He and Xephos were both starting to sweat, which would increase the chances of the monster smelling them.

They still had no idea what it was.

After standing and listening for a minute, Xephos started to feel an unnatural panic rising in his chest. His muscles clenched and he began to shake, and his sweat turned cold. He could barely breathe. Something bad was happening.

Honeydew could see that Xephos was rapidly becoming overwhelmed. Something was setting off his sixth sense; Honeydew had learned that whenever Xephos' demigod powers told him something dangerous was around the corner, it was time to leave. He squeezed Xephos' hand, and together they turned around and crept back towards the exit. 

They were halfway to the exit when they heard something moving. Heavy footsteps ahead of them signaled that the beast had returned to its maze. 

Xephos froze in sheer terror, but Honeydew was quick to act. He grabbed Xephos and quickly pulled him into one of the branching side tunnels. The tunnel they entered was small and curved, so they only had to go a few feet before they were out of sight of the main tunnel. As soon as they were out of sight, Honeydew stopped and held Xephos tight; Xephos squeezed his glowing eyes shut so as not to give their position away.

Neither of them could see it, but they could hear it. The footsteps lumbered closer, accompanied by a dragging sound. The beast had brought a fresh kill home with it. They could hear the monster breathing heavily as is dragged its latest victim. It occasionally ran what were obviously sharp claws along the wall, gouging out the rocks with every pass. Whatever it was obviously didn't have a fantastic sense of smell, because it didn't even pause at the entrance to the tunnel where Xephos and Honeydew were hiding. It passed them, and the air was filled with the smell of blood, so strong that they nearly gagged. 

They stood frozen, their backs pressed against the cave wall, listening to the thunderous footsteps of the creature retreating deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. Finally, when all was silent, they moved again. 

Honeydew slowly let go of Xephos and peeked around the corner. There was a fresh trail of blood on the ground from where the creature's next meal had been dragged along. No sign of the beast itself.

Still not daring to breathe, Honeydew reached back and carefully took Xephos by the arm, pulling his hands away from his eyes and signaling that now was the time to escape. Xephos nodded, and together they silently crept out of the branching tunnel and back towards the exit. 

They expected to hear a howl of rage as the beast spotted them, but it did not come. They made it to the exit of the cave safely and were thrown back into the wild woods. They crept further away from the cave and the labyrinth and beast within before sprinting home. 

Half an hour later, they burst out of the forest, gasping with terror and exhaustion. The sun was high in the sky, and it burned their eyes as they emerged from the shaded woods. They had emerged a short distance from Xephos and Lomadia's house, which Xephos now felt stood too close to the forest. 

After taking a minute or two to shakily catch their breath, they headed back to the house. When they got closer, Xephos noticed that Lomadia was outside, tending to her garden with great effort due to her lack of easy mobility. However, when she saw them approaching, she got to her feet and brushed herself off. 

“You probably shouldn't be stressing yourself with physical labor,” gasped Xephos, who was still struggling to catch his breath.

“You worry too much,” said Lomadia lightly as she walked out to meet them, stretching her aching back as she walked. “I got bored inside. Besides, I'm not due for another two months. Anyways, where have you two been all morning?”

“In the forest,” said Xephos, his face going pale. “We followed that thing that's been attacking the animals.”

Lomadia's eyes widened and the smile dropped off her face. “What is it?”

Honeydew shook his head. “We didn't see it. All we know is that it's big, it has lots of pointy features like claws and teeth, and it likes eating animals.”

“How big was it?” asked Lomadia, looking between the two. “I know you didn't actually see it, but I saw the damage it did to the barn. How big was its... nest?” 

“It's big. It lives in a network of underground tunnels in the forest,” said Honeydew quickly. “There's a shallow cave that it uses as an entrance and exit – the cave floor collapsed and exposed the tunnels underneath.”

“Do you think it's nocturnal?” asked Lomadia.

“It was so dark in and around the cave that it might as well have been night,” said Xephos, still sounding a bit breathless. He frowned a bit – he hadn't had as asthma attack in weeks, and he hoped he wouldn't have another one because of the run. 

Lomadia glanced back at the destroyed barn, which still had a few chickens clucking about. “So the Wolfsbane and Enderbane didn't work, huh?” 

“At least now you know it's not anything wolf or Ender related,” pointed out Honeydew. 

“It's a shame it hasn't rained in a while,” mumbled Xephos, clearly searching his memory for what the creature could be. “Something that big would have left some distinctive footprints.” 

The other two grumbled in agreement, and after a bit more theorizing, they went inside, having made the decision to keep a look out next time the moon was strong. It was all they could do for now. 

**XXX**

Lalna woke up to the sound of rain. Yawning, he rolled over and looked out the window to see stormy skies. 

It had been two weeks since the blood moon, and he hadn't had any trouble from the Enderbeast since then. Everything was going well. 

Next to him, Nano was sleeping soundly. However, a deep rumble of thunder woke her up a few minutes later. She too blinked her eyes open and looked out the window.

“Great day to stay in bed, huh?” she muttered thickly, rubbing her eyes. 

Lalna nodded. “I'm glad I put the chocobos in their pin last night, but I still have to feed them.” 

“Have fun with that,” said Nano as she snuggled up under some blankets. 

She watched as he got out of bed, put on his arm, and got into his rain gear. It was the first time it had stormed since they arrived in the world, so their rain coats and boots were still new and clean. 

“Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes,” said Lalna as he thumped down the stairs. 

Nano closed her eyes, hoping to go back to sleep, but after a few minutes she realized that she needed to go to the bathroom. With a sigh of defeat, she slowly sat up and slipped out of bed, walking gingerly on swollen feet. 

As she made her way to the bathroom, she stopped and looked at herself in the mirror. She saw that her bump was noticeably bigger, to the point where it looked like she had swallowed a watermelon. Luckily, the clothes Lalna made her fit nicely and were extremely comfortable. It never failed to amaze her how he was still able to knit and sew when one of his arms was prosthetic. 

Shaking her head and laughing at the image of somebody trying to shove an entire watermelon into their mouth, she did her business and went back to bed, determined not to do anything productive. 

Not only did the weather make her tired, so did the baby. It was getting bigger and heavier, to the point where it was starting to hurt her back. It had also started taking up a lot more of her energy lately, so she was grateful for some extra sleep. 

After laying in bed for a few minutes, she fell back asleep. When she woke up a little while later, she was pleasantly surprised to see Lalna standing over her holding a plate with breakfast on it. 

“You... are the best,” said Nano with a smile, sitting up and taking the plate. Lalna sat down on the bed next to her.

“I figured if I was going to wake you up, I'd better do it with food in my hands,” said Lalna with a wide smile. 

“Smart,” muttered Nano through a mouthful of food. 

Lalna laughed a bit. “So... I was thinking about where we should add to the house. Y'know, to make a nursery and everything.”

Nano thought for a second. “We could add another section like we did with the kitchen. Maybe if we-”

She stopped mid sentence. There was an odd expression on her face, but then she smiled.

“This baby really loves the sound of your voice,” she suddenly said. “It didn't move all morning, but as soon as you started talking it got excited.”

The look on Lalna's face was a mix of several emotions, all of them happy. 

“Well, I hope they like me after they're born too...” he stammered, his voice breaking a bit. Nano thought she saw him start to tear up a bit. 

They spent the rest of the rainy day in bed, planning where to expand the house, knitting baby clothes, and being glad they didn't have any reason to go outside in the rain. 

It was the calmest day they'd had in months. 

**XXX**

The next morning, Xephos stepped outside, his feet sinking a few inches into the wet mud. The sun was shining and the air was foggy and chilly. He trudged over to the farm.

Looking around, he saw that the freshly repaired barn and the new animals were all unharmed. There were no signs of footprints in the mud.

All was quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this one was spoopy enough


	5. Disaster

“This is a terrible idea,” said Nano, her arms crossed.

“This is a fantastic idea,” said Lalna, staring excitedly at the incubator. They were currently standing in a large section of field that Lalna had walled off. An incubator sat in the center, holding a large pale egg. Lalna stood close to it, but Nano stood further back.

“Do you really expect an actual dinosaur to hatch from that thing? It's ancient!” exclaimed Nano, gesturing to the egg sitting inside the incubator. 

“I promise you, it's going to work and you are going to eat your words,” hummed Lalna, leaning so close to the glass box that his nose was almost touching it. A manic smile was still present on his face. 

“Okay, let's say for the sake of argument that it _does_ work,” snapped Nano, looking at the egg with a slightly fearful expression. “If that thing hatches, what will it do?”

“It _will_ hatch,” whispered Lalna, pressing his hands and face against the glass. “And when it does we'll have a beautiful dinosaur and it'll love its new home. It won't be like last time.”

“You mad bastard, what happens when a Velociraptor hatches and tries to eat you? What happens when a T. rex escapes?” exclaimed Nano, taking another step back as the egg gave a small shake. 

“I think it's hatching!” shouted Lalna excitedly, ignoring Nano's warning.

Nano took another step back as the egg gave another violent lurch and began to crack. “Lalna, you were so focused on if you could, you didn't stop to think if you should...”

Lalna looked into the incubator through the open top. Just before Nano could warn him that it was a bad idea, the egg burst open and something pale and fleshy and definitely not a proper dinosaur exploded out of it. Lalna barely had time to be disappointed before the thing reared up and attacked, flinging its horribly disfigured body at him and smashing into his face.

Nano watched as Lalna fell backwards, screaming and trying to beat off the monstrosity that he had hatched. A second later, Nano found herself howling with laughter as Lalna struggled on the ground with the angry blob. 

“I told you!” she screamed, taking great joy in berating him on the plan that had blown up in his face. She really enjoyed the fact that he was unable to respond because he was still trying to stab the vile thing to death. 

After a few more minutes of Lalna struggling and Nano laughing, he managed to finally kill the thing. He struggled to his feet, looking thoroughly disheveled. 

“Thanks for the help,” he grumbled, but even he couldn't help laugh. The experiment had been a complete, hilarious failure. 

“Let's go back inside,” gasped Nano, straightening up and wiping tears from her eyes. “The sun sets in a few hours, so you need to take your medicine.”

Lalna nodded and they walked back to their house. The first full moon of the month was that night, and even though Lalna only suffered from early moon sickness on a true full moon, they didn't want to take any chances. Two hours before the sun set, Lalna took a heaping dose of pain medicine, which would last him through the night. 

Sure enough, the sun fell and the full moon rose, and Lalna didn't suffer. He could barely even feel the Enderbeast. 

Satisfied that the headaches had been avoided, they continued working on several of their experiments for two more hours. Once the clock on the wall hit 10, however, a low rumble of thunder distracted them from their scheming. 

“Oh, I didn't realize it was raining,” mumbled Nano through a yawn as she looked out the window. Dark clouds had rolled in and obscured the moonlight, and a mild yet steady wind was rustling the trees. 

Lalna looked out the window too. “Huh... the clouds are blocking the moon, which explains why the Enderbeast disappeared half an hour ago.”

“Well, let's take advantage of that and go to bed,” said Nano, again stifling a yawn and stretching her aching back. “I'm exhausted.”

Lalna agreed, and they wrapped up their plans and headed for their room. Half an hour after the thunder started, they were both fast asleep.

Nano remained asleep until nearly 3 in the morning, when a swift and sudden kick from the baby jolted her awake. Realizing what had happened, she groaned and closed her eyes, wanting to go back to sleep but knowing that the baby wouldn't allow it.

This had happened a few times now – she had hit the six month mark a week previously, and every few days since then, her baby would wake up at an ungodly hour and kick her for a while before going back to sleep. The first time this had happened, she woke up Lalna, but once she realized this would become a common occurrence she decided to let him sleep. 

As quietly as she could, she slipped out of bed and crept downstairs to get a glass of water and wait until the baby fell asleep again. She sat at the table as it kicked and turned over; looking out the window, she saw that the rain had stopped and the clouds were drifting away. She could hear crickets beginning to chirp outside. 

She was suddenly distracted when the baby landed a solid kick to her already sore ribs, making her wince. 

“Just three more months and you won't be able to kick me anymore,” grumbled Nano, rubbing the sore spot. 

After a few more minutes of kicking and shifting, the baby finally settled down, much to Nano's relief. Gently standing, she quietly made her way back upstairs. Lalna was still fast asleep, which made Nano appreciate the cloud cover. She was sure that the lack of direct moonlight was preventing Lalna from having his usual nightmares.

However, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, the remaining clouds drifted away, bathing the room in blue moonlight. 

Almost immediately, Lalna woke up and sat bolt upright with a small gasp. He frantically looked around, and when his eyes landed on the empty pillow and blankets next to him, he clearly started to spiral into panic.

Realizing this, Nano quickly stepped forward, moving closer to the window so Lalna could see her clearly.

“Lalna, it's okay, I'm right here,” she whispered quickly, kneeling down on her side of the bed.

She saw Lalna relax and breathe a small sigh of relief. However, he still looked a bit freaked out. Knowing that he tended to run off and build something after truly terrifying nightmares, she quickly reached forward and grabbed his arm at the same time that he made to stand up. 

“Calm down,” she said, her voice firm as she pulled him back onto the bed. “Breathe. Tell me what happened.”

Lalna closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. “I uh... I had a really vivid nightmare about a transformation... It involved you...” He glanced down at her belly with a fearful expression. 

“It was just a nightmare,” said Nano, repeating what she had said every month for the past few years. “I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up. That must have freaked you out.”

Lalna nodded, rubbing his eyes. “It kinda came out of nowhere...”

“The moon came out a few minutes ago,” said Nano, gesturing to the window where blue moonlight continued to shine in. “That's probably what triggered it.”

Lalna nodded again, breathing easier now. He slid back down against his pillow, pushing his hair back out of his eyes. He was almost completely calm again. Nano laid down next to him and got comfortable; after a bit of shifting, they ended up wrapped in each others arms. 

“I hope it rains tomorrow night,” mumbled Lalna before he and Nano fell asleep.

**XXX**

The next morning was clear and cloudless, the grass still damp from hours of rain. There was a slight chill in the air; the aftermath of the rain. 

Admiring the vibrant colors of the vast cloudless sky, Lalna made his way across the lawn to the chocobo pen. He opened the doors to their stalls, expecting to find sleepy and possibly wet and hungry chocobos. He didn't expect all of the chocobos to come running out of their stalls the second the doors opened, running straight into him.

Luckily, the first chocobo through the door roughly shoved him aside, so none of the others trampled him. However, when he hit the ground a jolt of pain rain through what remained of his right shoulder. He had clearly landed badly on the prosthesis. 

“Shit...” he muttered, sitting up and using his knee to support the weight of his prosthetic arm. He massaged his aching shoulder and looked around the paddock at the skittish chocobos. They were all darting around and looking frantic – clearly something had scared them. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” asked Lalna as he stood up, still rubbing his shoulder. 

The birds didn't answer his question, so he left the paddock and started walking around the edge, looking for animal prints. The ground was still damp and soft, and any wild animals would have left footprints in the mud. However, he didn't find anything except the prints of a stray raccoon or two.

Perplexed, he turned and made his way to Nano's botany hut, where she was hard at work. 

“What happened?” asked Nano, glancing up to see Lalna splattered with mud, looking disheveled, and clutching his arm. 

“The chocobos are acting strange this morning,” said Lalna. “They're all skittish, and they almost trampled me trying to get out of their stables a few minutes ago.” 

Nano frowned. “Maybe they're freaked out because of the storm from last night,” she suggested. 

“Maybe...” muttered Lalna. “Oh well. What are you working on?”

Nano glanced at a box with a blanket thrown over it in the corner. “Uh... nothing...” 

Lalna raised an eyebrow. Normally it was he who did something dangerous and stupid and tried to keep it from Nano.

“What's in the box?” he asked, nodding towards the blanket. 

Nano chewed her lip for a moment, clearly debating whether or not to tell Lalna. 

“Uh... Devil's Snare...” she muttered after a minute. 

Lalna had not been expecting this. “What?” he exclaimed. “Why did you make that?”

Nano shrugged. “It was right there in my book, I had all the stuff I needed... Don't worry, it's in a pot, and I already taught it that I'm its master.” 

Lalna laughed. “And you were the one berating me for trying to resurrect dinosaurs.”

“You don't think the Devil's Snare could be what's upsetting the chocobos, do you?” asked Nano thoughtfully, ignoring a possible tangent about dinosaurs. 

Lalna shook his head. “No, it's gotta be something else. I don't know, I'll think about it.”

By now, his arm was burning, and it was starting to feel swollen beneath the prosthesis. He excused himself and headed back to the house to get ice, putting the curious chocobo conundrum in the back of his mind. 

**XXX**

Several miles away, Xephos and Lomadia stood outside their barn, where they had been waiting for half an hour trying to usher the animals outside. However, the newly replenished stock of pigs and cows did not want to leave the barn. They were huddled tightly in the back corner, as far from the freshly repaired door as they could possibly go. 

“What is the matter with them?” grumbled Xephos as he tried for the tenth time to tie a rope around one of the cows and lead it outside.

Lomadia stood at the fence with her arms crossed, watching curiously. Their animals had never behaved like this before. She glanced nervously into the forest, wondering if the beast that had scared her baby was responsible. Was it nearby? Should they be scared too?

Right at that moment, however, Honeydew appeared by her side so suddenly that it made her jump. 

“Holy shit...” whispered Lomadia, taking a deep breath. “You scared me.”

“Sorry!” exclaimed Honeydew. 

“Why are you covered in ash and soot?” asked Lomadia, noticing how dirty the dwarf was.

“I accidentally burned my place to the ground,” said Honeydew nonchalantly. “Is it okay if I stay with you guys for a bit?”

Lomadia put her head in her hands and gave a long sigh before turning and leading him inside, leaving Xephos to deal with the animals. 

“You know where the guest room is,” said Lomadia tiredly as she sat heavily on the couch. “I need to sit down for a minute.”

Honeydew nodded and walked into the familiar guest room. However, a few things had changed since he had last stayed, namely the presence of the half built crib. The second he laid eyes on the unfinished and unstable crib, he smiled. He cracked his knuckles and got to work.

Lomadia could hear loud scrapes and banging coming from the guest room, but she was too tired to get up and investigate. She had slept badly the night before, and her passenger was getting bigger and heavier every day. 

After half an hour, however, the door to the guest room opened and Honeydew emerged, pushing the fully completed and perfectly stable crib. 

Shocked, Lomadia got to her feet and walked over to it.

“Wow!” she exclaimed, admiring how perfect it looked. “This looks amazing!”

“Don't mention it,” said Honeydew, smiling widely. 

“I really appreciate it,” said Lomadia sincerely. “This little guy is due in about a month, and we had everything ready for him except the crib.”

“Consider it payment for letting me stay here so much,” said Honeydew with a slight wave. “By the way, does Xephos know that you're having a boy yet?”

“No, and I plan on keeping it that way,” said Lomadia, her voice suddenly sounding cold and slightly threatening. “And remember, if you ruin the surprise for him, we won't let you be the godfather anymore.”

Honeydew started to sweat. “Understood,” he said with a weak smile. 

Lomadia glared at him for another minute before being unable to keep a straight face. She started laughing at how scared he had looked, and he joined in. 

Outside, Xephos was covered in mud and sweat. He finally became too frustrated with the stubborn animals.

“Fine, do whatever you want,” he snapped, throwing the rope down and leaving, keeping the door open in case they decided to go outside.

None of them moved.

**XXX**

Nano sat on the pier over the river, cooling her feet in the water. It was late in the afternoon, and the lack of cloud cover had turned the day hot. 

The river was still overflowing from the rain the night before, and because of that it was a bit more turbulent than usual. Waves would occasionally splash up against the wooden supports, sending a fine mist her way. 

She was just finishing her afternoon snack when she noticed something across the river. It was lying on the bank, half buried in mud. It looked like a skull.

“Hey, Lalna!” she called over her shoulder. A minute later, the scientist came around the corner. Nano was a bit surprised to see that he wasn't wearing his prosthetic arm. 

“What is it?” he asked, carefully edging out onto the pier. He was clearly off balance without the weight of his arm. 

Nano gestured to the thing across the river. “Does that look like a skull to you?”

Lalna raised his hand to shield his eyes against the low sun. “Yeah, but it looks like an animal skull. Want to go have a look?”

Nano nodded, and together they made the short walk to the bridge they had built across the river. On the other side, they made their way back down the slippery bank to where the skull lay half buried. 

They used sticks and shovels to dig it out, wanting to avoid touching it with their bare hands. After removing most of the mud, they were able to tell that the skull had once belonged to a wild pig or boar, and had been exhumed and washed downriver by the storm. 

The thing that concerned them was the fact that half of the skull was bashed in.

“What do you think did _that_?” asked Nano, gesturing to the caved in half of the skull.

Lalna frowned. “Could have been another animal. Maybe a vampire?”

“I read about vampires, and they usually prefer to kill their prey by snapping necks, not bashing skulls,” muttered Nano. 

Lalna nodded. “Yeah, and look at the size.” He made a fist and held it next to the crater; it was clear that a hand his size was far too small to do that level of damage.

“Could have been a werewolf,” suggested Nano. “I know they sometimes forget that they have claws and teeth.”

“Maybe,” said Lalna. “Or, it could be none of the above. This pig could have just stumbled off a cliff and bashed its head open on a rock. I mean, there are dozens of mountains upriver, I'm sure one bad step could have sent it over.”

“I feel like there's a joke to be made here about flying pigs,” said Nano, doing her best to suppress a grin.

Lalna laughed, and after another few minutes, they made their way back across the river and headed inside.

The sun was falling lower in the sky, and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful clear night. Nano could see that Lalna was becoming more sensitive to the light, a symptom which often foreshadowed migraines. Remembering the last true full moon, she gave him the strongest dose of pain medicine that they had. 

They stayed inside and ate dinner as the sun fell closer and closer to the horizon. 

“How's your arm?” asked Nano.

Lalna glanced at his shoulder. He hadn't put the prosthesis back on because his shoulder had been swollen from the fall that morning. 

“Still raw,” he mumbled, trying to shift and feeling a slight twinge of discomfort. “Then again, it _has_ only been four, five months since it was amputated. It probably still has some healing to do.”

Nano nodded. Lalna's arm had healed well after being amputated at the shoulder, and within a month it had healed enough to accept a new prosthesis. The only problem was Lalna – he would often forget to take it off at night, or check the remainder of his shoulder for irritation. Nano knew he didn't like to think about his disability, which led to him ignoring problems with it until they got worse. She was just happy that tonight he seemed to realize the best thing to do would be to forgo the arm until the swelling went down. 

“So how exactly did you fall?” asked Nano. “What position was your arm in?”

“Well, the chocobos sort of came out of nowhere, so I didn't have time to put my arms up,” elaborated Lalna. “When I fell, I landed on my elbow with my arm bent. It felt like the impact tore something in my shoulder.”

“At least we know the pain medicine is working,” said Nano, gesturing first to his arm and then over her shoulder out the window where the sun was halfway below the horizon. “Any headaches?”

Lalna smiled and shook his head. “None. Now, the only thing is-”

He suddenly stopped with a gasp. “I forgot to put the chocobos back in their stable! I'll be right back.”

Faster than Nano expected, he jumped to his feet and sprinted out the door.

Shaking her head at Lalna's forgetfulness, Nano stood up and put the dishes in the sink, then headed upstairs. In their room, she began searching for more comfortable clothes to sleep in. While she looked, however, she suddenly noticed something.

Her nose was bleeding. 

She stopped, slowly putting her hand to her nose. Around her, time seemed to slow down, yet her heart began to race. She looked out the window and saw that, even though the sun had set minutes ago, the sky was not getting darker. It was turning red.

With a shot of horror, she realized that a blood moon was rising.

Movement caught her eye, and she looked down to see Lalna casually strolling back towards home, having put the chocobos away.

With another stab of panic, she realized that the pain medicine was keeping him from feeling the warning pain in his scars. He had no idea.

Nano threw open the window.

“LALNA!” she screamed, her voice breaking.

He stopped and looked up at her, his eyes wide, still halfway to the house.

Not a second later, the true full moon broke the horizon, glowing a violent blood red. 

Nano could only watch, her eyes wide with horror, as Lalna suddenly seized up, a look of shock frozen on his face. He took one step, stumbled, and fell to his knees. He started convulsing.

Nano felt as though something was holding her back, keeping her rooted to the spot. In her head, the pieces clicked together with disturbing clarity. The combination of the true full moon and the blood moon had overpowered both Lalna and his amulet.

Almost as soon as she realized this, he started to Change. 

She saw his hair turn black. Over the sound of her own heartbeat, she could hear bones cracking and clothes ripping.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and a sharp _crack_ , and then the light was gone and the Enderbeast was there, kneeling in the same spot where Lalna had just been. It slowly stood up, and Nano gasped.

The missing arm had been regrown, but was long and clawed and, shockingly, covered in glowing purple crystals along with the other arm. She could see crystals protruding like spines from its back, and there were several growing out of its neck and the left side of its face. Nano didn't have to guess – the crystal growths were made of flux. 

The monster turned and slowly looked up, its eyes penetrating the red haze and staring directly at Nano. It looked terrifying in the crimson moonlight. 

After staring for another minute, the beast turned and teleported away, leaving no trace.

The second it was gone, Nano felt unleashed. Suddenly able to move again, she turned and sprinted down the stairs as fast as her baby would allow. She burst through the front door and out into the red night, running to the spot where Lalna had transformed. 

There was something shiny on the ground.

Nano skidded to a stop and was horrified to find the shattered remains of Lalna's amulet laying on the ground. It was broken into a dozen pieces, and the fragments of Ender crystals were no longer glowing, having lost their magic forever. 

She felt dizzy with fear. The Enderbeast was free, and nothing could stop it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAH HAHA HA


	6. Maps

Nano stood frozen, staring at the remains of the destroyed amulet. Her heart racing, a single name appeared in her mind: Rythian.

Quickly glancing around but seeing nothing, she turned and sprinted back inside. She grabbed the nearest Ender eye she could find, then put a pot of water over a fire to start it boiling. She knew the smaller pot of water would only give her a few seconds, but that was all she needed.

As soon as the water started boiling, she whispered a few words to the eye, then tossed it in, where it popped and released a cloud of purple smoke.

Taking a deep breath, Nano shouted at the cloud at the top of her lungs: “GET OVER HERE NOW!”

The cloud disappeared, and three seconds later, there was a sharp _crack_ as Rythian teleported in. He looked disheveled, his clothes askew and a toothbrush in his hand. 

“What the hell is going on?” he asked, still looking startled. Nano had clearly interrupted him as he was getting ready to go to bed. 

“I'll tell you in a second, but first, have you seen Ridge?” asked Nano frantically. “Do you know where he is?”

Rythian's mask was hanging around his neck, so Nano could fully see his expression change.

“I've uh... been observing him for a while. I wanted to find him and thank him for helping us, but when I found him, he was with a robot.” Rythian seemed to choose his words carefully. “He didn't recognize me. I think he might have lost some memories...”

Nano closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Somehow, she had been expecting something like this. It had been nearly four months since Ridge died and transferred his memories to a clone, but the fact that he hadn't come to find them in such a long time told her that something had gone wrong. She would find a way to deal with the news after the blood moon was over. 

Shaking her head, she opened her mouth to bring Rythian up to speed when he suddenly stumbled a bit, all the color draining from his face. His eyes flashed bright purple, and he looked like he was about to vomit. 

“What the hell is happening here?” mumbled Rythian, trying to take in his surroundings. His eyes kept darting back to the windows where red light was streaming in. 

“Here, sit down,” said Nano quickly, ushering him over to the sofa where she forced him to sit down. “It's the blood moon that's making you feel sick. It causes a different reaction in everybody. Do you need water? Medicine?”

Rythian shook his head, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “No, I'm okay... I think I'm getting used to it... I haven't seen a blood moon in a long time.”

This took Nano aback. “Wait, you've seen blood moons before?”

“Once,” said Rythian, his voice dropping to a menacing whisper. “But that was a long time ago. Now, tell me what's happening. Why did you call me here?”

Jumping a bit, Nano quickly told Rythian about the blood moons and how they affected Lalna, then she told him how the combination of the blood moon and the true full moon had caused him to Change and destroy his amulet. 

“That's why I called you here,” finished Nano, out of breath from the rapid explanation. “Lalna told me that you had an amulet just like his. You're the only one who can help me get him back...”

Rythian was silent for a moment. Most of the color had returned to his face, but the scars around his mouth still stood out. His expression was stoic. Slowly, he stood up.

“Okay,” he said, waving his hand and summoning his sword. “I'll help you. But first we need to get that amulet.”

Nano's face fell. “You mean you don't have it with you?”

Rythian shook his head. “I haven't had it with me since I showed it to Lalna that one time. It's a powerful artifact that does nothing for me except remind me of somebody I lost. I've kept it well hidden, especially after Israphel tried to get his hands on it.”

“So where is it?” asked Nano, starting to feel frantic. She wanted to get out there and find Lalna. 

“It's locked away in a small pocket dimension that's bound to me,” said Rythian, strapping on his sword and tying his mask back over his mouth. “But we can only access it when I'm on top of a tall mountain.”

Nano stared at him. “Why?”

“As a safeguard to prevent my pocket dimension from being opened in a dimension that isn't the Overworld,” explained Rythian. “With dark magic, you can force a pocket dimension to open even when the person it's bound to-”

“Okay, fine!” Nano interrupted. “That seems a bit overly paranoid, but whatever. There are a dozen tall mountains nearby, we can go there to get the amulet.”

She picked up her sword and glanced out the window. There weren't any monsters outside yet. Suddenly, realization struck her and she gasped.

“Oh no... we have to warn the others about Lalna,” she exclaimed. “The Enderbeast hates Xephos, it'll target them!”

Without waiting for Rythian to respond, she turned and opened the door, stepping out into the red night. She heard him follow, and he jogged a bit to catch up to her. As they walked, he looked around, still clearly disoriented from the sudden teleport and the new location.

Nano's nosebleed had stopped, but in the light of the blood moon, the sour taste returned to her mouth. She was annoyed by it, but she also knew that a bad taste was much better than insomnia or migraines. 

They walked in silence for a while until Nano noticed movement in the corner of her eye. Glancing into the nearby forest, she saw movement in the trees. It took her a minute to recognize them for what they were: Endermen, dozens of them. They were all lurking in the trees, watching the pair with their glowing purple eyes.

“So, uh, what the hell is up with that?” asked Nano, nudging Rythian and gesturing to the treeline. 

Rythian had to think for a moment before he realized what was happening. 

“Okay, I get it now,” he said, his voice low. “The baby you're carrying is the child of an Enderbeast, and they can sense that. Believe it or not, but family is something that's precious to them. For some reason, they see the Enderbeast as kin, which makes your child and, by extension, you, part of the family. They're protecting you, see?”

He pointed to the forest where two Endermen were disemboweling a zombie. Nano was slightly grossed out, but also grateful that they would be able to move around outside safely, even while the blood moon was still in the sky. 

“So tell me again how the blood moons have been affecting Lalna,” said Rythian after a few more minutes of walking in silence. “You kind of skimmed over the details the first time.”

Nano took a deep breath. “Every time there's a blood moon, the Enderbeast threatens to wake up. He said it's usually worse when he's alone. Then on full moons, he suffers from what we've been calling Moon Sickness. He gets horrible migraines and nightmares. It's debilitating. But... tonight, everything combined. He was outside, directly in the light of the blood moon, without me there to bring him back. I guess it was too much.”

Rythian nodded, silent. A few seconds later, they came over a hill and saw Xephos and Lomadia's house in the distance. 

“But... the strangest thing,” added Nano as an afterthought, “is the crystals.”

Rythian raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? What crystals?”

“After he Changed, there were glowing purple crystals growing out of his arms and back and neck. Y'know, all the areas where his flux is the worst.”

“WHAT?” exclaimed Rythian, stopping in his tracks with a look of horror on his face. However, his exclamation was drowned out by a nearby scream.

With a gasp, Nano drew her sword and sprinted towards the house, with Rythian close behind her. 

They rounded the corner to see Xephos on the ground, and the Enderbeast standing over him, a clawed and crystal-covered hand raised in the air, ready to attack. 

Just as the Enderbeast started to bring its claws down to savage Xephos, Nano stuck her hand out and caught the Enderbeast by the flux, bringing it to a complete and sudden stop. 

The Enderbeast struggled for a few seconds before turning its head and spotting Nano. As before, it stared at her for a few seconds before teleporting away, leaving Xephos unharmed. 

As soon as the Enderbeast teleported away, the door to the house flew open and Lomadia and Honeydew came tumbling out.

“Xephos!” exclaimed Honeydew, running over to trembling spaceman, who was still on the ground. 

“We couldn't get the door open,” explained Lomadia when she spotted Nano and Rythian. 

“He must have sealed it to keep you two from interfering,” muttered Rythian thoughtfully. 

Honeydew helped Xephos to his feet, and Nano ushered everybody inside, where they gathered in a circle looking at her.

“Was that the Enderbeast?” whispered Xephos before Nano could even start to explain. 

“Yes, it was,” said Nano.

“What happened?” asked Lomadia, who looked extremely pale. Nano remembered that she had never actually seen the Enderbeast before. 

Nano quickly explained for the third time that night why Lalna had transformed into the Enderbeast. 

“But... why was he covered in crystals?” asked Honeydew once everybody had been brought up to speed. 

Nano opened her mouth to explain, but she realized that she didn't have the answers. Instead, she looked to Rythian, who had been silent the whole time.

Rythian looked at the ground, his expression cloudy. “The thing about flux,” he said quietly, “is that it's extremely chaotic. So chaotic that Ender creatures, myself and Lalna included, can't survive an infection.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. 

“In order to save itself,” he continued, “his body forced the flux out, where it crystallized. As you know, flux grows better outside of the body, so those crystals sticking out of him are going to grow throughout the night, doubling the amount of flux that will be released back into his body when he transforms. That will be enough to kill him, if the transformation doesn't do it first.”

Lomadia was chewing on her fingernails. “Isn't there a way to remove the crystals before he transforms back?” she asked.

Rythian shook his head. “When his body forced the flux out, it forced out some organic bits too, including veins, arteries, nerves, and muscle. Those crystals can bleed. Trying to remove them would either paralyze or kill him, and trying to damage them would do the same along with releasing lots of deadly flux into his body. And besides, his metabolism is too high for a sedative to work, so you wouldn't be able to even get close enough to him.”

“Have you... seen something like this before?” asked Xephos. “You seem to know a lot about it.”

Rythian sighed. “I've seen stuff like this on a smaller scale. When a normal Enderman is infected with flux, crystals will start sprouting immediately. Normally they'll chew off the limb where it started before it can spread too far. That's why you never see fluxed Endermen walking around. But... this? I'm really only theorizing, because I've never seen something this intense before.”

They were all quiet for a second before Honeydew spoke up.

“So what are we going to do now?”

“I have a plan,” said Nano, fire in her eyes. “Rythian and I are going to go get his amulet, since Lalna destroyed the first one. Then once we have it, we're going to find Lalna and keep him safe until the sun comes up. I'll handle the flux, and Rythian will handle the Ender stuff. We're going to make sure he survives.”

“Well... what are _we_ supposed to do then?” asked Lomadia. 

“Stay safe,” said Nano, her voice stern. “Lalna is probably infectious, and the last thing we need is one of you guys getting fluxed.”

“We aren't going to just sit here!” exclaimed Honeydew, looking offended that Nano would even suggest it. “You've got to let us help!” 

“I have an idea,” said Rythian, stepping forward. He held out his hands and summoned what looked like a digital tablet with a box and an antenna on the back. He held it up for everybody to see, showing that the screen displayed a topographic map of the surrounding area. 

“Zoeya built this,” he explained, pulling it back and beginning to fiddle with it. “It can be used to monitor locations of people or find certain things. We can calibrate it to look for both Ender creatures and things that are fluxed.”

He looked at Nano, who ran her hands through her hair until she found one of the few remaining strands that was still fluxy. She plucked it out and dropped it into the small slit in the device. Rythian pulled an Ender pearl out of his pocket and put it in the device as well.

“There,” he said, holding out the tablet. Hundreds of blue dots had appeared on the map, most of them in the surrounding forest. “Those blue dots represent anything Ender related, and anything fluxed will show up as a purple dot. See?”

Everybody looked closer and saw that a single blue and purple dot where right next to a small white dot, which Rythian explained symbolized the location of the device. 

“Anything that's both fluxed and Ender will show up bright pink,” said Rythian, handing the tracker to Lomadia. 

Sure enough, they all looked at the map again and were able to find a single pink dot, way off in the area between the house and the mountains. They watched his dot disappear and shortly reappear in a different place. 

“Keep us updated on where everybody is,” said Nano, turning and heading for the door.

“And stay safe!” exclaimed Rythian as he quickly followed her. 

The door closed and Honeydew, Lomadia, and Xephos were left standing, staring at the tracker. While Lomadia and Honeydew instantly started fuming about how they were forced to stay behind, Xephos took the tracker and looked closer at it.

There was one section of the forest where there were no blue dots – it almost created a perfect, blank circle. Suddenly, in the center of the empty area of forest, a single blue dot appeared. However, the dot flickered red for a moment before disappearing. 

He stared at the map for a moment before realizing that the flickering red dot was right in the same area as the scary cave he and Honeydew had found. The one where the monster lived.

A few seconds passed before Xephos spotted the red dot again, flickering on the screen for a few seconds before fading again. It was clearly moving away from its cave, heading deeper into the forest. 

Xephos took several deep breaths before making the decision to find the monster. He wordlessly handed the device back to Lomadia, who took it without really noticing, because she was still ranting to Honeydew. 

He picked up his sword and quietly walked out the door, into the night.


	7. Serpent's Thread

Lomadia and Honeydew sat at the kitchen table, both of them on the edge of their seats as they stared at the tracking device Rythian had left with them. They nervously watched as the purple and blue dots representing Nano and Rythian moved closer to the mountains. Their eyes kept flickering between Nano and Rythian and the pink dot that represented the Enderbeast.

They could see that the Enderbeast was off on its own. It would occasionally disappear and reappear somewhere else as it teleported. It hadn't gotten near anybody yet. 

After watching for several more minutes, Honeydew stood up and started pacing nervously, not able to handle sitting still. He walked in circles for several minutes before he realized something.

“Hey, where's Xephos?” he asked out loud. 

Lomadia didn't seem to hear him, so he turned and quickly walked around the house, looking through all the rooms. However, Xephos wasn't there. 

“Lomadia,” said Honeydew, returning to the kitchen. “I can't find Xephos...”

This finally got Lomadia's attention, and she tore her eyes from the screen. “Wait, what?”

“Xephos isn't here!” exclaimed Honeydew, gesturing around. 

Lomadia looked around for a moment, the color slowly draining from her face, her eyes widening with horror. In one swift movement, she snapped up her headset and used it to call Xephos. It beeped for a minute before there was a sharp static noise and Xephos answered.

“Hey,” came his voice. “You guys realized I was gone a lot faster than I expected.”

Honeydew watched Lomadia's face go from terror to fury in a split second.

“Xeph, what the fuck!” she shouted. “Why the hell did you go wandering off during a blood moon?”

They heard him sigh, clearly debating whether or not to tell the truth. In the silence, they could hear the rustling of leaves in the wind. 

“I'm going to the cave where the giant scary monster lives, because I know it won't be there,” he finally said. “If I can figure out what it is, maybe we can figure out how to get rid of it.”

“YOU CHOSE TO DO THIS NOW?” screamed Lomadia furiously. “WHEN THERE'S AN ENDERBEAST OUT FOR YOUR BLOOD?” 

She stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep, calming breath. 

“Xephos, you are a fucking idiot,” Lomadia whispered. “Why don't you wait and let Honeydew catch up to you?”

“I'm too far from the house to wait,” said Xephos, clearly apologetic. “Besides, I'll be quieter and faster by myself, and I want you both to stay safe and stay away from this cave...” 

Lomadia was clearly pissed off, clenching her teeth and glaring down at the headset in her hand. Then she noticed something, and her expression instantly changed into one of terror.

Before Honeydew knew what was happening, Lomadia cut off the headset, grabbed Honeydew and the tracking device, and pulled him against the wall, out of sight of the window. 

Lomadia slapped her hand over Honeydew's mouth, and they both slid into a sitting position, pressed closer to the corner. Silently, Lomadia slowly handed Honeydew the device. Honeydew looked at the screen and nearly felt his heart stop.

According to the tracker, the Enderbeast was right outside the window. 

They both pressed themselves as tight to the wall as possible, and sure enough, they heard footsteps and saw a large shadow pass the window, blocking out the red moonlight. It stopped and stood there, clearly looking through the window, trying to see if anybody was inside. It was so close that they could see the purple glow coming from the flux crystals. 

Everything stayed frozen for about 30 seconds before the Enderbeast walked off. They watched on the tracker as it walked away from the house, avoided the Enderbane around the barn, and eventually teleported away. 

As soon as the coast was clear, Honeydew jumped to his feet and started pacing. 

“What was that?” he exclaimed, his hands in the air as he frantically paced. “That was terrifying! How did he know we'd be in here?”

Honeydew turned and looked back at Lomadia, and he saw that she was still sitting against the wall. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply, clearly trying to calm herself down. She still looked very tense, and Honeydew could see that her hands were shaking.

“Are you okay?” asked Honeydew, moving back over to her and kneeling down.

“That was really fucking scary...” Lomadia whispered, opening her eyes to look at Honeydew. She was clearly shaken by the close encounter. 

“Yeah, it was pretty scary...” Honeydew quietly replied, glancing down at his own hands to see that he was also shaking. 

Lomadia shook her head, her face pale and her hands still clenched in fists. “If I hadn't glanced down at the tracker when I did...” 

They both nervously glanced back out the window.

“Here, let me help you up,” said Honeydew, standing and holding out his hand. Lomadia took it, and he pulled her to her feet. 

Lomadia walked back over to the table, one hand gripping the back of her chair with white knuckles. Honeydew went around and started closing the curtains. Lomadia watched him for a moment before looking back down at the tracker. However, she was shocked to see the pink dot moving quickly towards the dots representing Nano and Rythian. It was on a collision course. 

Lomadia fumbled with her headset and managed to turn it back on in time to yell, “LOOK OUT!”

The tracker showed the three dots converge, and her headset sounded only static. She saw the pink Enderbeast dot suddenly break away and disappear, leaving Nano's purple dot and Rythian's blue dot behind.

She could only watch in horror as Rythian's blue dot turned pink.

**XXX**

Nano and Rythian had been walking for about an hour without incident. Even though they were far from the forest now, there were still a few dozen Endermen following them at a distance, keeping the monsters away. The giant red moon was high in the sky now – Nano had the feeling it was around midnight. 

They were just approaching the base of the tallest mountain when they heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind.

They turned around just in time to see the Enderbeast lunge out of the darkness. It gave a howl of fury and slashed its claws upwards, striking Rythian across the face and throwing him back.

“NO!” yelled Nano, more out of shock. 

The Enderbeast made to lunge for Rythian again, but Nano grabbed it by the flux and flung it back, away from Rythian, who was lying unmoving on the ground.

The Enderbeast staggered to its feet and made to lunge again, but this time Nano was ready. She grabbed it by the flux again and pinned it to the ground. As it struggled against her magic, she stepped in front of Rythian, standing over him protectively. 

After another moment, the Enderbeast managed to break free of her magic, and it jumped to its feet, standing to its full, terrifying height, glaring down at Nano. She stared back at it, standing her ground. 

It stared at her with empty purple eyes for an unnerving amount of time, but while it was standing still, she was able to get a good look at it for the first time in a couple hours. The flux crystals had noticeably grown throughout the night, to the point where it looked like they were weighing it down. Its hands were encased in thick purple crystals, the spines on its back were bigger, and the entire left half of its neck was now covered in a layer of crystals that stretched from its jaw, out onto its shoulder. Nano felt her heart sink. There was no possible way Lalna would survive the transformation again. 

Suddenly, the Enderbeast spoke, saying something in the Ender language that she didn't understand. Then it teleported away.

Nano closed her eyes and took a slow breath, relieved. She turned to face Rythian, but she was shocked by what she saw.

Rythian was lying flat on his back, gasping and shaking. Glowing purple crystals were sprouting out of his face from the wounds the Enderbeast had left. 

“FUCK!” yelled Nano. She dropped to her knees and took hold of the flux, stopping it from continuing to spread. Her hands shaking with the intense effort, she fought with the crystals, and after a moment she was able to force the flux to return to liquid. From there, she pushed it back so that any nerves or tendons that had been displaced returned to normal, and once she was sure that Rythian would have full mobility of his jaw back, she finally pulled the flux out of the wounds.

The whole process took five minutes, and in that time Rythian had stopped moving, going very still and pale. Only when Nano fully removed the flux did he open his eyes again.

Nano breathed a long sigh of relief and used a bit of easy magic to convert the glob of flux hovering above her hand into vis. Then she turned back to Rythian.

“Are you okay?” she whispered, leaning over him.

Rythian looked disoriented. He slowly reached his hand up to feel the wounds on his face, but Nano grabbed his hand. 

“Let me heal it first, okay?” said Nano calmly. 

Rythian gave a small nod, which caused a bit of blood to drip into his eye. Nano wiped the blood away and started using her old demigod magic to slowly heal him.

Now that she was calm, she could get a good look at the damage the Enderbeast had done. It had left four long, deep lacerations on the left side of his face, starting at his chin and stretching up to his temple. His mask had been ripped in half, and he was covered in blood. He was lucky that the claws had missed his eye.

As Rythian looked more and more awake, Nano told him what happened as she continued to heal him. 

“So...” he said after a long pause, “now we know that it's contagious...”

Nano gave a small nod, and a moment later she finished closing the wounds. Because it had been so long since she last used her demigod magic, she wasn't able to heal them completely. She had done a good job, but it still left deep scars. 

“Thank you,” said Rythian as Nano helped him sit upright. “You saved my life. That flux would have killed me...”

Nano smiled at him, but she still felt a deep sense of fear. “You're welcome, but... that was extremely difficult to do, even for me. You had two or three small crystals, and I was barely able to handle them...”

She felt her nose bleeding from the difficult magic, but she didn't care. She looked up at the blood moon.

“There's no way I'll be able to save Lalna...” she whispered, a tremble in her voice. “Once the flux is crystallized, it's almost impossible to control it.”

Nano looked back at Rythian. There were tears in her eyes.

“He's going to die, isn't he...?”

Rythian didn't say anything for a moment, and Nano turned away again.

“Well...” said Rythian after a long pause, “he'll definitely die if we don't get that amulet.”

Nano's gaze snapped back to him, her expression unreadable.

“Look, we'll figure something out,” said Rythian. “We always do. But before we deal with the flux, we have to deal with the Enderbeast.”

Nano stared at him for a moment before slowly smiling. She stood up and held out her hand, and Rythian took it. They set off towards the mountains again.

“I don't know if you heard,” said Nano after a minute of walking, “but he said something to me in the Ender language before he teleported away.”

Rythian's expression fell. Without his mask, it was easy to see.

“Yeah, I heard him,” said Rythian, looking paler than the blood loss had left him. 

“What did he say?” asked Nano.

Rythian gulped. “He said... _It knows we're here._ ” 

**XXX**

Xephos slowly approached the area of silent forest that he hoped he'd never see again. In the red light of the blood moon, the dark cave looked much more terrifying than it had before. However, he knew that the cave was empty. The monster wasn't nearby; this was his only chance.

He knew that the key to discovering the monster's identity was hidden in the heart of the labyrinth. He needed to make sure he didn't get lost.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and held out his hands, palms up. Concentrating, he felt his heart start to beat faster – this was okay as long as he didn't lose control.

There was a soft swirl of light, then his hands started to glow orange. He opened his eyes, which were glowing red. Staring at his open hands, he whispered a single word: “ _Ariadne_...”

Flames began to flicker above his hands, and after a moment they swirled together, forming a small fiery serpent that sat in the palms of his hands. 

“Help me find my way,” he whispered to the serpent. Then he set it down, and it instantly darted into the labyrinth, leaving behind it a small trail of fire that looked like a glowing orange thread. 

Taking a deep breath, Xephos stepped into the cave and walked down the rocky slope into the tunnels below. The thread provided a soft orange light that helped him see where he was going.

Trusting in the serpent, he followed the path it showed him. Within minutes, he had gone deeper into the cave than he had gone with Honeydew. Even in the dim light, he could still see the deep gouges taken out of the wall, and there was still a single giant tooth lying discarded. The light coming from the serpent's thread and his own glowing red eyes made the tooth look like it was covered in blood.

Steadying himself, he kept walking. The path began to quickly branch and divide, no doubt leading to pitfalls and traps and dead ends and cliffs. However, the serpent kept him from wandering astray. Deeper and deeper he moved into the maze. After two minutes, he was already so deep underground that his headset lost connection.

The further he went, the hotter the air became. His sense of fear and overwhelming dread grew stronger and stronger as the tunnel quickly began to slope downwards. He was sweating due to the heat, and even though he knew he had only been in the caves for about ten minutes, it was starting to feel like hours. 

As he walked, he noticed there were far more claw marks on the walls, and there were animal bones littering the ground. He was careful not to step on them. 

Suddenly, the ground leveled out, and he turned the small corner to see the serpent sitting at the entrance to a massive cavern, waiting patiently for him and providing enough light for him to see.

Xephos was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the cavern, which stretched up into the darkness seemingly for miles. He had reached the heart of the labyrinth. 

At his feet, the serpent gave a small crackling hiss, and Xephos managed to tear his eyes from the gargantuan cavern and focus back on the ground. He saw something in the very center of the cavern floor, and when he realized what it was, he gasped in shock.

Dozens of human skulls were arranged in a perfect circle in the center of the cavern. They were surrounding a large skeleton that was still intact.

His heart hammering in his chest, Xephos took a cautious step forward. The serpent gave another hiss, almost warning him to be careful as it slowly slithered along beside him. 

There was something strange about the human skulls, aside from the fact that they had been arranged in a ritualistic circle. 

It was only when he was ten feet from the circle that he finally realized what was wrong with the skulls. And at that exact same time, he recognized the creature that the skeleton had originally belonged to.

It was the skeleton of an Enderbeast. 

That was when everything clicked, and Xephos knew exactly what the monster was.

“Apex...” he whispered, his voice catching in his throat from fear. 

The air in the cavern suddenly shifted, and something moved in the shadows. Xephos whipped around, trying to see what it was. He knew it couldn't be Apex – the great beast was still out hunting. 

He realized too late that Apex had left its shadow behind.

An enormous shadow burst forth, spewing out of the darkness with its glowing red eyes locked onto Xephos. He didn't have time to react before the shadow's arm soared through the darkness, its clawed hand passing straight through Xephos' chest.

A wave of cold shot through his body. The serpent at his feet gave a furious scream, and it exploded in a massive fireball. The force of the blast threw Xephos back into the tunnel that led him into the heart, and the light managed to scatter the shadow. Xephos stumbled to his feet and ran.

Although the serpent had gone, the thread remained, but it was fading. Xephos realized that it was being held in place by his magic, and he was losing concentration. His vision kept fading in and out, his eyes kept flickering back to blue, and it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. 

Whatever magic the shadow of Apex had used on him, it was interfering with his demigod magic. It had also triggered an asthma attack. 

His breathing becoming more and more ragged and pained with every step, he found himself stumbling and gasping. He fell to his knees and looked back. The shadow hadn't followed him into the tunnels – it must have been confined to the heart. However, it had already done its job.

Somehow, Xephos knew that the shadow had alerted Apex to the intrusion. The beast was on its way back.

_It knows I'm here..._ thought Xephos. 

The last light of the thread flickered out, and Xephos was plunged into darkness. He was too weak to get back to his feet, and he had started coughing up blood. He had no choice but to blindly crawl.

Ahead of him, he caught a glimpse of the red night sky and the mouth of the tunnel. There were several large shadows standing there, looking down at him. As soon as they saw him, they jumped down into the tunnel and grabbed him, three pairs of hands picking him up and quickly carrying him out, back into the forest.

By now, the cold had spread to every last part of his body, and it felt like his lungs were filling with ice water. He had no idea what had pulled him out of the cave or where they were taking him, but even over the sounds of their footsteps and strange noises, he was able to hear a long, low, haunting howl in the distance. 

Apex was returning to its cave.

Still, Xephos couldn't help but smile. He had succeeded in his mission to discover the identity of the monster that had been haunting him. With that thought in his head, he lost consciousness and slipped into the black abyss.


	8. Apex

The moon was starting to sink through the sky by the time Nano and Rythian made it to the top of the mountain. The whole time they made their way to the summit, Nano kept glancing up at the moon, trying to estimate how close it was to sunrise. While her eyes were turned skywards, Rythian kept glancing over his shoulder. Something in the back of his mind was bothering him, besides the fact that there was a wild Enderbeast on the loose.

It was what the Enderbeast said that was bothering him. _It knows we're here._ Ever since he had arrived, he'd had a strange feeling. Now he recognized that as the feeling of being watched.

Even though Rythian was on edge, and his sixth sense was going haywire, nothing happened. They made it to the top of the mountain by around two in the morning.

“Alright,” gasped Nano, doubling over to catch her breath. “That was fun. Get the damn amulet and let's go downhill.” 

“It wasn't that bad,” said Rythian with a smirk.

Nano glared at him. “Just do your magic.”

Rythian nodded and turned to look over the fields below, bathed in red moonlight. From here he could see Nano and Lalna's house, and the long winding river that cut its way through the valley. He turned his eyes skyward, seeing stars shining brightly.

Closing his eyes, he held out his hands, his palms up. Purple magic began to swirl around his open hands, and after a long moment, a small rift that looked like a blue swirling cloud appeared. Rythian opened his eyes and reached into the small cloud. When he pulled his hand out, he was holding the amulet. 

“Well, that was easier than I expected,” said Nano. 

“Yeah,” muttered Rythian, inspecting the amulet. “It seemed too easy...” 

Nano raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Rythian didn't respond at first. He stared at the amulet, then looked back at the sprawling landscape below him.

“I think... I think I've been here before...” he muttered.

Nano stared at him. “What do you mean?”

Rythian gestured to the view. “I've seen this before, but I don't remember where...”

“Right...” said Nano carefully. “Well, you can think about it while we're on our way back down the mountain. We don't have all night.”

Rythian was still for a moment, lost in thought, before snapping back to attention. 

“You're right,” he said, closing his fist around the amulet. “Let's get moving.”

They started to make their way back down the mountain. It was a lot faster and easier going down than it had been going up, much to Nano's relief. They walked in silence for the next 45 minutes, until they reached the bottom of the mountain. 

As they walked past a small patch of trees, heading for the river, Nano opened her mouth to ask how they would lure the Enderbeast close enough to get the amulet on it. Right at that moment, however, there was a noise behind them. They both whipped around to see the Enderbeast standing within the trees, staring at them.

Menacing as ever, the Enderbeast stepped out from behind the trees and took a few steps towards them. In one swift motion, Nano snatched the amulet out of Rythian's hands and held it up to the beast. 

The Enderbeast froze and stared intently at the amulet. Its expression started to change. It started to relax, its face changing from a snarl to a much more human look of confusion. It wasn't completely under control, but it was no longer rampaging. 

“Lalna...” Nano whispered, taking a small step closer, still holding out the amulet. 

The Enderbeast looked at her, then back at the amulet. Slowly, it lifted a heavily fluxed hand and started to reach for the amulet.

Suddenly, it stopped and took a quick step back, rapidly looking around. It looked conflicted and confused. Then its eyes focused on something behind Nano and Rythian, and its expression changed to one of sheer terror. It looked back at Nano, and then teleported away.

Nano and Rythian stood frozen. They had seen the expression on the Enderbeast's face when it looked behind them. They both stood completely still for several seconds, listening for noise, too scared to turn around. All they could hear was the sound of the river.

Nano took a small breath.

“I'm going to turn around...” she hissed. Rythian nodded, and together they slowly turned.

There was nothing behind them.

“What... what scared him?” asked Nano. She was relieved that there hadn't been a giant monster standing behind them, but at the same time she was terrified. What had the Enderbeast seen? 

“I don't know,” said Rythian, also looking around. “But... I don't think we should stay here much longer. Something doesn't feel right.”

“Alright,” said Nano, handing the amulet back to Rythian. “Let's go back to my place and we can figure out a plan.”

They started walking, both of them highly on edge. However, Nano was comforted by the fact that the Endermen were still nearby. They had followed her at a distance as she climbed the mountain, and they had remained when the Enderbeast appeared. She knew that if something was able to scare the Enderbeast, it would scare the Endermen too, and the fact that they were still nearby meant they were safe. 

Almost as soon as she realized this, something in the air changed. Then a low, echoing roar shattered the silence. The sound was terrifying and haunting, and the way it carried across the land indicated that something big had made the noise. 

Nano and Rythian froze, and so did the Endermen nearby. Then every single Enderman teleported away, leaving them completely alone. 

There was a sudden, sharp pulse of magic from across the river, followed immediately by the sound of low growling. Nano felt her blood run cold, and Rythian stopped breathing. Nano took Rythian's hand, and together they turned to look.

Something massive stood on the other side of the river, staring at them with glowing red eyes. It was twice the size of the Enderbeast, standing at nearly 30 feet tall. The air around the behemoth was shimmering with magic, which cast the monster in shadows. However, they could see that it had horns.

Nano felt Rythian's hand start shaking, and it sounded like he was having trouble breathing. 

“What the hell is that thing?” she breathed. 

Rythian shook his head, shaking badly now. “It's... it's a mutant Enderman... It's the one that killed my friend...” 

As if it heard them, the monster let the shadows fall away. The mutant Enderman smiled at them, revealing terrifying rows of long sharp teeth. Two of its fangs were longer than the others. Then it teleported away.

Not even a second later, they heard the noise of something teleporting behind them. They whipped around, expecting to see the monster standing over them, but they were shocked to see the Enderbeast. It was gasping for breath and covered in blood, and in its arms it was holding Xephos, who was unconscious.

The Enderbeast quickly set Xephos down and looked at Nano and Rythian, its face full of panic. Then it teleported away again. 

Nano and Rythian ran over and turned Xephos over so he was on his back. He was scraped and bruised, but he didn't appear to be badly injured. However, Nano noticed that his arm was cut, and purple flux was slowly spreading beneath his skin. The Enderbeast must have accidentally cut him while it was holding him.

Nano waved her hand over the scratch and easily pulled the flux out. Because Xephos was human for the most part, the flux remained in liquid form instead of crystallizing, so she was able to easily remove it and get rid of it. 

After another minute, Xephos started to wake up.

“Xeph, can you hear me?” asked Nano, giving him a gentle shake. 

Xephos blinked for a moment before suddenly jolting fully awake, sitting up with a gasp and looking around.

“What... what s-side of the r-river are we on...?” he stammered, clutching his chest and seemingly struggling for breath. 

“The side without the giant monster,” suggested Nano.

Xephos breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay... so we're safe...”

“What the hell happened to you?” asked Nano. “What's actually going on here?” 

Xephos took another deep breath. “It's complicated...”

Nano glared at him. “Then start by telling us how you got from your house to here, and we can go from there.” 

Xephos nodded and started to explain.

**XXX**

When Xephos drifted back into consciousness, he experienced an odd sensation. It took him a moment to realize he was being carried. He was shivering, and it felt like all of the blood in his chest had turned to ice, but the sensation was quickly fading.

After a moment, Xephos managed to open his eyes. There was a large dark hand resting on his chest, and purple magic was swirling around it. Xephos blinked a few times, and his vision cleared enough for him to realize that he was being carried by an Enderman, and another Enderman was healing him. There was a third one walking alongside, clearly keeping an eye out for danger. 

The Endermen suddenly realized that Xephos was awake. They all stared down at him and started talking to him.

“I... I can't understand you...” stammered Xephos, trying not to look any of them in the eye. 

The Endermen went quiet and started looking around. They stopped, and then the one carrying Xephos carefully set him down, leaning him against a large rock. The three Endermen then knelt down in a semicircle around him, staring at him. The one in the middle started speaking in sign language. 

“Can you understand?” asked the Enderman. 

Xephos nodded. “Why did you save me?” he signed back. 

The Endermen looked at each other and muttered to one another before the one in the middle responded. 

“We are all prey to the Apex,” it signed. “Prey must stick together, or die.” 

Xephos felt his breath catch in his chest. So Apex truly was here. 

The Endermen were chattering again, and the middle one translated.

“We also saw you go into the Apex's cave and come back out alive,” it said. “What did you find?”

Xephos felt his blood run cold. “It left its shadow behind...” he signed, his hands shaking. 

The three Endermen looked at each other, concerned.

“The Apex is what we fear most,” said the middle one. “It does not eat us, but it will always kill us if it can.” 

Xephos nodded. After what he saw in the cave, everything was falling into place. His heart began beating faster as he understood. 

Xephos lifted his hands to speak, but then something in the air changed. The three Endermen froze, and a second later they teleported away, leaving Xephos perfectly alone.

With a sharp gasp, he jumped to his feet and spun around, and all of a sudden Apex stood mere feet away, towering above him, its glowing red eyes staring into his. Its eyes flashed white, and suddenly Xephos felt his mind go blank and his body relax. He couldn't move, he simply stood in place. 

Apex snarled, revealing dangerously sharp fangs. It took a step towards the hypnotized spaceman, opening its mouth wide. 

Suddenly, there was a small popping noise, and the Enderbeast appeared directly behind Xephos. Apex took a step back, shocked by the sudden appearance of the Enderbeast. 

The Enderbeast used that moment of hesitation to grab Xephos and teleport away. Apex snarled and teleported after them. 

The Enderbeast landed the teleport shorter than it expected. It was confused for a moment before realizing that teleporting with an extra person was effectively weighing it down. 

The Enderbeast paused, trying to think of a way to escape with both of their lives, but Apex suddenly appeared very close by, having hunted them both down by following the jump scar. The Enderbeast turned and teleported again, and then again. Apex was close behind, so it couldn't rest. It had to run.

Several teleports later, the Enderbeast was gasping for breath, feeling physically and magically exhausted, but it couldn't rest. It had to escape, but every time it teleported, Apex would follow, appearing several meters away and forcing the Enderbeast to teleport again to escape. Dragging Xephos along with each jump was quickly draining its energy, and soon the chase would end. 

Apex appeared again, and the Enderbeast teleported for what felt like the hundredth time. When it landed, however, it stumbled, and Apex, who appeared several feet away, suddenly sprung into attack. It lunged, trying to bite whatever it could get its jaws on, but the Enderbeast dodged out of the way. In a fury, Apex swiped its enormous claws out, hitting the Enderbeast in the chest and just barely missing Xephos. Apex's claws ripped through the Enderbeast, sending a spray of blood across the clearing they had landed in. 

The Enderbeast fell back with a cry of pain, landing hard on its side. It felt one of the crystals on its hand scratch Xephos, but that was the least of their worries.

Apex snarled and advanced again, but right at that moment the Enderbeast noticed the sound of running water. It glanced to its right and saw water through the trees – they had reached the river.

Gathering the last bit of its strength, the Enderbeast held tight to Xephos, ignored the pain in its chest, and teleported to the side, landing on the other side of the river. 

Gasping and shaking, the Enderbeast looked down at Xephos, who was unconscious but alive. Then it looked up, across the river. Apex stood on the other side of the water, less than 10 meters away, but it couldn't cross. They had escaped.

Furious, Apex let out a tremendous roar that echoed across the land, and then it teleported away. The Enderbeast closed its eyes and let its head rest on the ground, taking a minute to breathe. The wound on its chest was slowly healing, thanks to the blood moon, and after a minute of laying still it felt its strength slowly returning. Taking a deep breath, it stood up again with Xephos in its arms. It could handle one more teleport with him, but where should they go?

One word ran through the Enderbeast's mind: _home._

The Enderbeast closed its eyes and focused on home, not a place but a person. She was nearby. It would be an easy jump. 

The Enderbeast held tight to Xephos and teleported again.

**XXX**

Nano and Rythian stared at Xephos as he finished his story. 

“You have so much explaining to do,” said Nano quietly.

Xephos gulped. “Can I borrow one of your headsets? I lost mine in the cave, and I want everybody to hear this... I need everybody to know what's happening.” 

**XXX**

Lomadia sat at the table with her eyes closed, and her head in her hands. She was taking deep breaths, trying to remain as calm as possible. Xephos wasn't answering his headset, and neither was Nano. She and Honeydew had watched the increasingly erratic movements of the Enderbeast on the tracker, and the number of times it had appeared directly next to Nano and Rythian was causing them both a fair amount of stress. They had also watched in horror and confusion as clusters of Endermen would quickly teleport away from an area, running from something that wasn't showing up on the tracker. That was what scared Lomadia the most – what else was out there?

She heard a noise and looked up. Honeydew set a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of her before sitting down. 

“Here,” he said kindly. “You still look really pale, so maybe this will help.”

Lomadia smiled and sipped the tea. “Thank you,” she whispered. 

Honeydew frowned a bit as he nervously tapped on the table. “Are you sure you're okay?” he asked. “You've been pale and tense ever since the close encounter.”

Lomadia stared at him over the rim of the cup. She thought for a moment before slowly setting the cup down. She opened her mouth to speak, but right at that moment, the headset on the table flared to life and Xephos' voice filled the room.

“Hello? Lomadia? Honeydew? Are you there?”

They both answered at once and started talking over each other, until Xephos interrupted.

“Calm down,” he quickly said. “I'm safe, I'm with Nano and Rythian, and... and I found out what the monster is.”

Honeydew and Lomadia froze, looking at each other in fear.

Xephos' voice came through again. “It's... it's Apex...”

Honeydew gasped, all the color draining from his face. He had jumped to his feet when the headset went off, but now he swayed and sank back into a chair. 

Lomadia looked at Honeydew, then back at the headset. “What the hell is Apex?”

Xephos took a deep breath. “You're not gonna like this...”

“Tell me anyways,” growled Lomadia, gripping the back of her chair with white-knuckled hands. 

“It... it all started in YogLabs,” said Xephos. “The scientists had developed a new chemical that did strange things to monsters. We called it Chemical X. It was very unstable. While it didn't hurt humans, it killed most of the monsters it came in contact with. The ones it didn't kill, it mutated. We realized this pretty quickly and started to test it, and modify it.

“We tired it on everything... zombies, skeletons, Creepers, even snowmen. And then... we tested it on Endermen. We captured three of them and put them in the testing chamber, and then we infected them to see what would happen. They all mutated. Two of them looked the same – y'know, twice the size of a normal Enderman, with four arms – but the third one... that one mutated differently. It stood up after the process was complete, and we were all shocked. This one was too smart... it was too big. I think it mutated differently because of how unstable the chemical was, or maybe because it was a female. I don't know.”

Xephos stopped and took a deep breath. His hands were shaking, and he didn't dare look at Rythian or Nano.

“Before we even realized what was happening,” he continued, “the giant one slaughtered one of the smaller ones, then it mutilated the other one. We thought it was going to kill the beta, but I think the beta submitted or something, so Apex spared it. But...”

Xephos stopped, grimacing at a sudden tightness in his chest. However, he knew it wasn't his asthma that was giving him breathing issues now. It was the anxiety about what he was going to say next. 

“The beta stood up, and when I saw the wounds on it, something clicked. Honeydew and I... recognized it. We realized that this mutant Enderman was the one that would escape and infect Lalna.”

Xephos closed his eyes, feeling tears welling up. His hands were shaking.

“I gave the order to kill them. I screamed it. _Kill them! Now!_ But... as soon as I said that, Apex grabbed the beta and teleported out of containment. I put the lab on lockdown and ordered all of the guards to protect the time machines and kill the mutants... But I had a feeling where they were going to go.

“We have this machine called a chronometric displacement generator, and when it's damaged it can disrupt time. Honeydew and I arrived just in time to see Apex and the beta rip the guards apart. We tried to stop them, but Apex smashed the generator and opened a rift. It went through, but the beta stayed behind and tried to fight.

“We tried so hard to kill it... We knew what would happen if we didn't. But... it didn't matter. Honeydew, I don't know if you remember this. Right before the beta escaped into the rift, it hit you in the head so hard it nearly cracked your skull. You had a really bad concussion afterwards, and you couldn't remember the beta. I didn't tell you. I didn't tell anybody.”

Xephos took a shaky breath. “This whole thing is my fault. I knew that, and I tried to keep it a secret. I even tried to keep it from Lalna. We modified the formula for the chemical so they couldn't teleport and they weren't poisonous to humans anymore, but the damage was already done. And when Lalna found us experimenting on mutated Endermen, he put everything together. He knows it's my fault, and that's why the Enderbeast is always trying to kill me.”

Everything was silent. Xephos looked up at Rythian, who looked like he was in pain. 

“This is the world where it happened, isn't it?” Xephos asked. “This is where Apex ended up, and this is where it killed your friend. I saw the skeleton of an Enderbeast in that cave...”

Rythian slowly nodded before looking at Nano. “That's why it was so easy to get the amulet back...” he muttered. 

While Rythian looked like he was in shock, Nano was clearly pissed. 

“So _you're_ the reason all of this shit happened?” she snarled. 

Xephos nodded. “And that isn't even the worst of it...”

“What do you mean?” asked Lomadia from over the headset. 

Xephos gulped and glanced at the blood moon, which was hanging low in the sky now. 

“This world has blood moons, but no vampires. There's a reason for that. In Apex's cave, I found the remains of at least three dozen vampires. It killed them all, scared off the rest, and got itself infected in the process. That's why it's been attacking our animals: for blood. The Enderbane doesn't work on it because it's barely Ender anymore. It can assimilate traits of whatever blood it drinks, so feeding on something that isn't an Ender creature gives it temporary immunity. That's also why it can't get into houses or cross moving water, and that's why it's so active during blood moons...”

Xephos was breathing hard now. His voice cracked when he spoke again. “It's a vampire, and we are fucked.” 

Everything was quiet for a minute before Nano spoke up, her voice strangely calm.

“What happens if we manage to trap it outdoors until the sun comes up?” she asked. 

“I... I guess sunlight would probably kill it,” stammered Xephos, shocked by how unafraid she sounded. 

Nano nodded, looking thoughtful. “Has it fed yet tonight?” she asked.

Confused, Xephos shook his head. “I don't think so... When I went into its cave, I set off its trap and called it back. I think that interrupted its hunting.” 

Nano nodded again, and a devious smile split across her face. “I have a plan.”

Rythian turned to look at her, looking concerned. “How could you possibly trap this thing? It's enormous, it's smart, its metabolism is too high for it to be sedated, and it can teleport.” 

Nano continued to smile knowingly. “I guess we need to get to the other side of the river.” 

Xephos and Rythian stared at her, but they all jumped when Lomadia's voice came through.

“Xephos, turn the speaker off, I need to talk to you,” she said sternly. 

After a slight pause, Xephos switched the headset off of the speaker mode and put it in his ear, standing and walking a short distance from the other two. On the other side of the river, Lomadia did the same, putting the headset in and walking into her room, leaving a perplexed Honeydew in the kitchen. 

“What is it?” asked Xephos.

“You found out what the monster is,” said Lomadia quietly. “So... can you come home now?”

Xephos sighed. “You know I need to help them kill it,” he whispered sadly. “It's my fault this thing exists in the first place, and it'll be my fault if it hurts anybody else.”

Lomadia was quiet for a minute. “Fine...” she muttered.

“Are you okay?” asked Xephos.

Lomadia suddenly grimaced and clutched her stomach as another contraction hit. It eased up a minute later, and she managed to respond to Xephos.

“Yeah, I'm just worried...” she said, doing her best to not sound out of breath. 

“I promise I'll be as safe as possible,” said Xephos. “I'll see you at dawn, when this is all over.”

“Be careful,” said Lomadia. She took the headset out of her ear and switched it off, then she turned to see Honeydew standing in the doorway, staring at her with wide eyes. 

“You're in labor, aren't you?” he exclaimed.

“No!” she quickly replied, sounding a bit frantic. 

Honeydew gasped. “Holy shit, why didn't you tell Xephos? You were _just talking to him_!” He was nearly yelling at this point, both from excitement and fear. 

“You know what he's like, when he feels guilty about something he won't leave others to deal with it,” snapped Lomadia. “I knew it was a long shot asking him to come back, so I need him to focus on killing the giant monster and coming back alive, not worrying about me, getting distracted, and getting killed! Besides, I shouldn't be in labor yet, I'm not due for another month!” 

Honeydew spoke in a voice only slightly quieter than a scream. “You've been like this for the past five hours. If it hasn't stopped yet then it isn't going to stop! You're going to have a baby today!” 

Lomadia and Honeydew both went very still and very quiet as Honeydew's words settled in. The looked at each other, and then they both started screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That one certainly took a while to write, mainly because I kept getting spooked while writing it haha.


	9. Rise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been over two months since I updated this. My bad y'all.

Nano emerged from her botany hut carrying a large pot, which held a dark green sinister looking plant. The plant had leafy tendrils which were moving of their own accord. One of the tendrils was wrapped lovingly around Nano's arm, but the others were reaching out, searching for victims.

“Do you know what this is?” Nano asked as she approached Rythian and Xephos, who both slowly backed away from the dangerous plant. 

“It's Devil's Snare,” said Rythian, looking nervous. It was much easier to see his concern without his mask. 

Nano nodded. “Neither of you should come near this pot, because it will attack anything that isn't me. And that includes Apex.”

Rythian nodded a bit. “I think I see where you're going with this.”

“I don't,” said Xephos. “What is this stuff, what does it do, and what's the plan?”

“Okay, the plan is to cross the river and lure Apex into the Devil's Snare. It'll trap the monster and hold it in place until the sun comes up, and hopefully Apex will die when the sun rises.” 

Xephos nodded. “Okay... that sounds incredibly dangerous.”

Nano glared at him. “Well, we don't have any silver weapons or holy water, so this is our best shot. Now, do you have any Enderbane with you?”

Xephos quickly searched his inventory and came up with a small bottle of purple liquid, which he tossed to Nano.

“I knew you would,” she said with a smile. She was very familiar with Xephos' hoarding issue. 

Nano carefully set the heavy pot down on the ground and uncorked the bottle of refined Enderbane. Rythian took another step back as she poured the bottle over the waving tendrils, getting as close to the roots as she could. Then they watched for a moment as small veins of purple quickly spread through the plant, impregnating it with Enderbane. 

“There,” she said, standing and picking the pot up again. “Now it won't be able to teleport away once it's caught.”

Nano started to walk towards one of the nearby bridges, but then she stopped.

“Before we start,” she said, turning to Rythian and Xephos, “I need you both to run back to my house. Xephos, grab the medical kit from the upstairs bathroom. Rythian, there are half a dozen bottles of painkillers in the kitchen that I want you to get. Bring them all. Got it?”

The boys nodded and jogged back to the house, so Nano set the pot down to wait for them. While she waited, she looked up at the moon. It was hanging so low in the sky that it was nearly touching the treetops, and she knew that dawn was less than an hour away. She felt her heart start beating a bit faster. They were running out of time to save Lalna, and at the same time she knew there was also no plan to save him. She didn't know how to find him before sunrise, and she didn't know how to cure his flux. Nano closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the falling moon. It was a death sentence for Lalna. 

Suddenly, the baby kicked, startling Nano so badly that she almost yelped. It shocked her because the baby had been so still all night.

“Did you seriously sleep through this whole thing?” asked Nano, staring down at her belly in disbelief. “You truly are Lalna's child.” 

The baby stretched in response and turned over, probably to fall back asleep. Nano shook her head a bit. She looked up and noticed Rythian and Xephos returning, so she picked up the pot of Devil's Snare and walked to meet them. 

“Are you ready?” she asked. They both nodded. “Good.”

“So where is everything going to happen?” asked Xephos nervously.

Nano gestured to the bridge that was south of the house, which spanned a wide and shallow part of the river. Beyond it was a large open field that separated the river from the forest. 

“That's where we'll kill it,” said Nano, her voice quiet and serious. 

Xephos nodded in agreement. “Looks good to me.”

Rythian looked grim. “Let's not keep the devil waiting...” he growled. 

They gathered up their things and began walking. As they moved, Nano reached over and gently touched Rythian's arm.

“Your friend who was killed by Apex, what was his name?” she asked quietly. 

The pain on Rythian's face was apparent. “Sparks,” he whispered. “His name was Sparks.” 

**XXX**

Honeydew was pacing around the kitchen, constantly looking between the tracker and the windows. Things had been getting frantic as the night drew to a close. The Enderbeast was nowhere to be found, and Apex was mysteriously missing, but the Endermen nearby were all teleporting frantically. Honeydew was also concerned because Lomadia had been in her bathroom for half an hour. 

As if she had heard his thoughts, Lomadia emerged from her room and walked back into the kitchen. Her face was white and she was sweating, but she was still on her feet.

“How does the tracker look?” she asked, her voice strained. 

“Well... wait, are you wearing different clothes?” asked Honeydew.

“Yeah, my water broke,” said Lomadia nonchalantly. 

Honeydew's eye twitched and he felt his blood pressure rise. “You... you...”

“Don't start freaking out,” she snapped. “Tell me what's happening with the others.”

“Uh, t-they've crossed the river, but there's no sign of the Enderbeast or Apex,” he stammered.

Lomadia nodded before closing her eyes and grimacing, her hands tightly clenched on the back of one of the chairs. She stayed like that for a few seconds before standing upright and gasping for breath. 

“Whew, that was a bad one,” she choked out, her voice fragile. Honeydew noticed that her legs were shaking. 

“Maybe you should lie down,” he suggested carefully. “You've been on your feet all night, that can't be very comfortable.”

She must have been in more pain than Honeydew realized, because she agreed without hesitation, giving one stiff nod before turning and heading back to her room. Honeydew tucked the tracker under his arm and grabbed a bowl of cold water and a cloth before following her. 

A few minutes later, Lomadia was in her bed, curled up on her side in the least painful position she could manage. Honeydew sat in a chair beside her bed, dabbing her forehead with a cold cloth.

“Can't be long now...” Lomadia muttered through gritted teeth. “Any... any sign of the monster?”

Honeydew glanced down at the tracker again. He saw Nano on the tracker – he couldn't tell which blue dot was Rythian anymore due to all the Endermen near them, and Xephos didn't show up on the tracker – but he didn't see anything that would indicate Apex being nearby.

He was about to tell that to Lomadia when he noticed something else, and he gasped.

“What is it?” asked Lomadia, propping herself upright with a surprising burst of energy. 

Honeydew jumped to his feet. “The Enderbeast is right outside again, but...” He paused, looking confused. “It's not really moving... hold on.”

Handing Lomadia the tracker, he carefully moved over to the window and peeked through the curtains. It took him a moment to spot the Enderbeast, but when he did, he was shocked. 

The Enderbeast was near the house, but it wasn't paying it any attention. Instead, it was walking slowly, hunched over with its head hanging low. When Honeydew looked a bit longer, he saw that it was limping badly, and one hand was clutching its chest. He could see blood glistening in the moonlight. 

“What's happening?” asked Lomadia.

“The Enderbeast is out there,” said Honeydew, glancing back at her. “It's just walking, but it looks like it's injured.” 

Lomadia glanced at the tracker. “Apex isn't nearby. Call the others and tell them.”

Honeydew nodded and picked up his headset.

**XXX**

Nano, Xephos and Rythian had finished setting up their trap. The little potted plant was sitting in front of them, deceptively small and harmless looking. Rythian had set up some magic around the perimeter as well that would discourage Apex from leaving when it arrived. Now all that was left to do was wait. 

They were standing with their backs to the river, looking into the forest, when Rythian's headset started to beep. He answered it and put it on speaker.

“Hey, do you guys have eyes on Apex yet?” he asked. 

“No,” said Honeydew's voice, “but we've got eyes on the Enderbeast.”

Rythian blinked and suddenly his headset was gone from his hand. He looked over to see that Nano now had it. 

“What's happening?” she demanded. 

“We can see it outside the house. It looks like it's injured. It's chest is bleeding and it looks like it's having trouble walking.” 

“I remember he was injured by Apex when he saved me,” said Xephos. 

“Maybe the flux is preventing him from healing,” muttered Nano, more to herself than the others. “Honeydew, how do the crystals look?” 

“They're pretty big now. His entire left arm and the side of his neck and face are covered, and...” They heard Honeydew gag a bit. “It looks like there's blood coming out of the spines on his back...” 

Nano closed her eyes and took a deep breath. If the crystals on his back were bleeding, that meant they had probably grown inside him to the point where they were damaging his internal organs. 

“Thanks for keeping us updated...” she said, her voice a whisper. 

Honeydew could hear the despair in her voice. He looked sadly between the headset in his hand and the Enderbeast limping along outside. 

“Yeah, well- oh shit...” Honeydew glanced back at the tracker and saw a circle of emptiness appear. “Uh oh, guys I think Apex is heading your way...”

Sure enough, a few seconds later Apex's roar echoed across the land. Outside, Honeydew saw the Enderbeast jump and stand upright, looking around frantically. It teleported away a moment later. 

“Good luck you guys...” said Honeydew, his voice breaking with nerves.

“We'll call when this is over,” Nano responded. The headset beeped as she turned it off, and Honeydew and Lomadia had nothing left to do but wait. 

**XXX**

Apex's roar sounded a lot more menacing without the river to protect them. Nano, Rythian, and Xephos stood close together, braced for the attack. Sure enough, they saw trees falling in the distance, coming closer. 

Several seconds later, Apex burst from the forest, wild and snarling and enormous. It looked furious.

Apex saw the trio and gave a terrifying roar before sprinting straight at them. Because it was so focused on the kill, it didn't pay attention to where it was stepping.

One enormous foot came down on the pot, shattering it. The Devil's Snare flared to life, growing impossibly fast and wrapping itself around Apex with the speed of a whip. Its sharp thorns dug into the monster's skin, and more vines dug into the ground to hold it in place. Apex screamed in fury and tried to teleport away, but the Enderbane within the vines prevented it from doing so. With every vine it slashed away, two more would grow back. Apex was trapped.

While the monster writhed and howled, Rythian carefully raised his hand, hoping to immobilize it with a quick spell. However, Apex seemed to sense his movement, because it whipped around to face him, its eyes flashed white, and Rythian went stiff before collapsing to the ground. 

“Oh shit...” muttered Nano. She knelt down next to him and started doing magic to undo the paralysis. 

Apex seem to remember that they were there. Snarling, it closed its eyes, and its shadow detached from its body and shot across the ground towards Xephos. The shadow popped out of the ground and swiped at Xephos, who screamed and ducked under the blow. 

Trying not to panic, Xephos used his magic to light his sword on fire. He slashed at the shadow, and it staggered away from the flames. 

While Xephos and the shadow were drawing Apex's focus, Nano managed to get Rythian back up. He shook his head and focused, and within a few seconds he was back on his feet. His hands and eyes flashed purple with Ender magic, and he stepped forward and began launching bolts at Apex. 

Because Apex was suddenly distracted by the sharp bolts of magic, the shadow lost focus as well, and Xephos managed to stab it through its chest with his sword. The shadow gave a soundless yet still somehow audible howl and disappeared, fleeing back to its caster. 

Not wanting Apex to start focusing on Rythian, Nano activated her old demigod magic and started to pull water from the river. She flung the water at Apex, and it sizzled when it hit. Xephos saw what they were doing and pulled out his bow, pelting Apex with arrows. 

Apex stumbled and fell to its knees as well as the Devil's Snare would allow. It let out an earsplitting roar, the air began to crackle with electricity, and suddenly there was a blinding white flash and a deafening explosion. When the light and the smoke disappeared, the Devil's Snare had been burnt to a crisp, and Apex was free. 

Xephos had been thrown into the river by the blast, and Rythian had been blasted clear across the river. Nano had managed to throw a magic shield up in front of herself before the blast, so she alone remained standing.

Her ears ringing, she blinked and looked up at Apex, who was slowly getting to its feet. It was free, it was furious, and she was standing against it alone. 

Apex roared and lunged for Nano, but it never made it to her. There was a small pop, and the Enderbeast teleported in between them. It blocked Apex with a quick jab to the chest, and the sudden appearance startled Apex so much that it didn't stop the attack. Apex stumbled back and stared for a moment before glaring again. 

Now that they were standing face to face, Nano could see how much smaller the Enderbeast was than Apex. It was also badly injured and bleeding, clearly struggling to stay upright. Apex knew this, because it stepped forward, picked up the Enderbeast with one hand, and flung him towards the river. He would have fallen in, but Nano caught him by the flux and flung him back to the ground. 

Breathing hard, the Enderbeast staggered back to its feet and lunged at Apex again. Nano could only watch, her eyes wide with horror as Apex blocked every one of the Enderbeast's attacks as easily as if it were swatting at an annoying fly. 

After a minute, Apex seemed to get tired of playing. It stepped forward and stabbed the Enderbeast in the stomach with its foot-long claws. Another hit cracked some of his ribs, and with one last swift movement, Apex broke the Enderbeast's right arm. 

The Enderbeast gave a small pitiful cry before dropping to its knees, blood slowly dripping from its wounds. 

By this time, Rythian had made it back and Xephos had crawled out of the river. They both stopped next to Nano, their eyes wide. Everything was completely still for a moment.

The Enderbeast and Apex were staring at each other, waiting for the other to move. Then the Enderbeast turned away. It looked back at Nano, its eyes sad. Then it closed its eyes and lowered its head in defeat. 

Apex moved faster than they could comprehend. It lunged forward, grabbed the Enderbeast, and sunk its massive fangs into his neck, shattering through the flux crystals. The Enderbeast went completely limp as Apex began to drain the blood from its body. 

Xephos and Rythian cried out and tried to run to help, but Nano grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts. 

“Wait...” she gasped. “I know what he's doing...”

“He's dying!” exclaimed Xephos. However, Nano shook her head. 

Suddenly, Apex ripped itself away from the Enderbeast and staggered back, looking frantic. The Enderbeast dropped like a rag doll, completely unconscious. 

Apex staggered again and made a harsh choking noise. It started clutching at its throat and thrashing around, and then with one hand it started to claw at its own chest, ripping bits of flesh off. 

Suddenly, bright purple flux crystals began to violently burst out of its chest. A moment later, they started bursting out of its throat and mouth, followed by its back, then its eyes. Every time one of the sharp crystals burst out, Apex convulsed in agony. It howled and gargled like it was drowning and burning at the same time. The crystals continued to spread, bursting out of every inch of flesh with a splatter of blood. One of its eyes popped out of its head and landed on the ground near Rythian's feet. Nano saw one of the crystal push Apex's spine out of its back when it emerged, and the monster dropped to its knees. 

When it was almost over, Apex threw its head back and let out a scream of anger and agony, so long and loud that they thought it would crack the ground. But then the crystals fully surrounded it, and it went still. 

Everything was quiet. After a moment, Xephos turned away and vomited. Rythian and Nano stood with their mouths hanging open, also feeling nauseous. 

A moment later, the Enderbeast twitched, which snapped Nano back into action. She ran over to him, and her heart fell when she saw that he was slowly shrinking back to his normal size. Without looking, she could tell that the moon had fallen and the sun was rising. 

As the Enderbeast slowly started to transform back into Lalna, its right arm detached from its body and began to disintegrate. Some of the flux crystals began reverting back to liquid; Nano reached out and placed her hands against his chest, trying to stop the flux from entering his system again, but there was simply too much of it for her to handle. He started convulsing, and more of the crystals began to bleed.

Rythian appeared, kneeling down across from Nano. He wordlessly reached forward and put the new amulet around Lalna's neck, but it didn't seem to help. The massive amount of flux in his system was killing him. 

Nano kept trying. Her hands were shaking and her nose was bleeding, and she was putting every ounce of concentration into controlling the flux, but there was too much of it, and half of it was still in crystal form. No matter what she did, it wouldn't obey her. 

Lalna stopped breathing. Nano felt him go still. Her vision became blurry from the tears. Because of that, she almost didn't notice the small purple orb that appeared, hovering a foot above Lalna. 

Nano blinked to clear her vision and stared at the strange object, surprised. It looked like a small purple star, hovering and gently flickering. Nothing happened at first, but then a few seconds later, the flux crystals on Lalna's body started to shrink. Nano's eyes widened when she realized that the flux was flowing into the star. 

Lalna started to breathe again as the star absorbed the final bits of his flux. It was then that Nano realized exactly what the star was. It wasn't a star – it was a node. 

“Mother...” she gasped. 

The node flickered in confirmation, and it floated over to her. It lovingly brushed against her face, and she closed her eyes. She heard a voice whisper to her.

“Goodbye,” said Mother.

Nano opened her eyes and Mother was gone. 

Still in shock, Nano looked back down at Lalna and saw that all of his flux was completely gone. The wounds he had gotten throughout the night were still there, but now that he had his amulet and no flux, he would heal. And because her hands were still on his chest, she saw with a shock that all traces of flux had vanished from her as well. Mother had taken it. Nano and Lalna were both cured of their flux. 

A few seconds later, the sun broke the horizon. Nano, Rythian, and Xephos all looked up to see the crystals surrounding Apex turn to stone. After a moment, they began to dissolve into dust and blow away in the early morning breeze, leaving nothing behind. 

Xephos quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out the headset he had borrowed from Nano. He called Honeydew and Lomadia, but they didn't answer, so he left them a message.

“It's over,” he said. “Apex is dead.”

His words and the rising sun seemed to break the spell of silence that hung over them. Nano and Rythian started fussing over Lalna, who was still weak and unconscious. He had lost a lot of blood over the night. There were deep cuts and stab wounds in his chest and back, his amputated shoulder still looked inflamed and red – worse than it had been before the blood moon – and there was a deep wound in the side of his neck from where Apex had bitten him. Not only that, he was also suffering from the extreme energy deficit from spending the whole night as an Enderbeast, along with any internal wounds the crystals had caused. 

“Xephos, give me the med kit,” said Nano, her voice calmer than she would have expected. Even though Lalna was wounded and sick and would probably spend the next week in a coma, she was calm. She had spent the whole night terrified that he would die, but now that morning had come, the fear was gone. She knew that he would live. It was as if she had gotten him back from the dead. 

Xephos brought the medical kit over, and he and Nano started to treat and bandage Lalna's wounds. Rythian mixed a powerful dose of the painkillers into a bottle of water and managed to get Lalna to swallow most of it. After that, he seemed to breathe easier. 

After a few minutes, they had bandaged all of his wounds. Nano had just finished taping a patch of gauze over the wound on his neck when something happened. The crystal in Lalna's amulet suddenly stopped glowing, turning such a dark purple that it was almost black. 

Nano stared at the crystal before looking at Rythian. “What does that mean?”

Before Rythian could answer, however, Lalna suddenly sat upright with a gasp, his eyes wide open. His sudden return to consciousness made everybody jump. 

“What's happening?” stammered Lalna, frantically looking around. “Are we in danger?” 

“No, you're okay,” said Nano quickly, leaning forward and taking his face in her hands. 

Lalna had been frantic a moment before, but as soon as he saw Nano, he relaxed and smiled. 

“I uh... I can't actually believe that I'm alive...” he mumbled as he carefully leaned forward and pulled Nano into a long hug. 

“Yeah,” said Nano, hugging him back as gently as she could. “You certainly tried your hardest, but we saved you anyways...”

Lalna sat back a bit, grimacing and looking down at his wounds. “I got my ass kicked, didn't I?”

“It was pretty brutal,” said Xephos with a small nod. “But, you also saved all three of us from Apex.”

Lalna looked around and seemed to finally notice that Rythian was there. 

“So... it's dead?” he asked Rythian, his voice quiet.

Rythian gave a small nod and glanced back at the spot where Apex had died. When he turned, however, Lalna caught a glimpse of the fresh scars on Rythian's face.

“Oh... I did that, didn't I?” he muttered. 

“Why are you awake right now?” asked Rythian, ignoring the question. 

“Yeah, that's a good question,” said Nano. “Shouldn't you be in a coma?”

Lalna blinked and looked around. “There... there must be some kind of danger,” he said. “The last time something like this happened was when Rythian and I were trapped in the Nether.”

“What do you mean?” asked Xephos.

“When we were trapped in the Nether,” explained Rythian, “Lalna had just come out of a long transformation.”

Lalna nodded. “I was stuck as an Enderbeast for days.”

“But instead of being comatose afterwards, he was wide awake, albeit weak,” said Rythian. “We didn't figure it out until later, but his amulet was absorbing all of his fatigue. It sensed that he was in danger, and knew that it wasn't safe for him to recover his energy.”

“That's why I lost my arm,” said Lalna. “My amulet couldn't heal me because it was too busy keeping me functional, even when I should have had no energy left. That's why I asked if we were in danger a second ago.” 

“That's what the amulet is doing right now,” finished Rythian. “It absorbed all of his pain and fatigue.”

“Well, not _all_ of my pain,” grumbled Lalna, rubbing his broken ribs. He turned back to Nano and Xephos. “Obviously the amulet thinks something is wrong, otherwise it would have let me recover by sleeping.”

Almost as if in response to his statement, the headset in Xephos' pocket beeped. He answered it on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Hey Xephos, listen...” Honeydew's panicked voice said. “Uh, now that you guys killed Apex, it seems like a good time to tell you that Lomadia is in labor. I think she's gonna have the baby in less than an hour, but she thinks it'll be two more hours. I just wanted to let you know because I have no idea how to deliver a baby.”

Everything was dead silent for a second. The others could see the color drain from Xephos' face. 

“Okay,” said Lalna, loud enough so Honeydew could hear him, “just hold tight and we'll be there soon.”

The headset turned off, leaving them all frozen. 

“Okay,” said Lalna again after a few seconds. He looked down at himself – he was bloody, bandaged, and half naked. “I'm going to need some clothes, my medical kit, and...”

He paused and looked down at his shoulder.

“And I'm going to need my arm.”


	10. Quiet

Fifteen minutes after the sun had risen, Lalna, Nano, and Rythian were almost at Xephos and Lomadia's house. Rythian was carrying a large medical kit, and Nano was walking right next to Lalna, ready to catch him if he fell. He was stumbling, dizzy from the blood loss and the pain in his arm.

“Lalna, I really don't think you should be wearing your arm right now,” said Nano.

Lalna shrugged a bit and grimaced. He had his prosthetic arm strapped on, but it was hanging limp by his side, and he was clutching his shoulder as he walked. 

“I really don't want to be wearing it,” said Lalna, “but you need at least two hands to deliver a baby.”

“I've got two hands,” said Nano, holding her hands up. She was still a bit startled to see that her hands were normal colored once again, now that Mother had taken all of her flux away. 

Lalna nodded stiffly, grimacing at the wound in his neck. “Yeah, I'm going to need your help too. And you too, Rythian, if you're up for it.”

Rythian nodded. He still looked like he was in shock from watching Apex die. 

A moment later, they arrived at the house. Xephos had gone straight home after Honeydew told them what was happening, but it was Honeydew who opened the door for them. He didn't say anything, but he looked surprised to see Lalna. They came inside and went into the bedroom.

Lomadia was lying curled up in the bed, pale and sweaty and breathing hard, but as soon as she saw Lalna she sat up and stared.

“How the hell are you not dead?” she exclaimed. 

Lalna smiled and began setting his equipment up on the table in the corner. “Your guess is as good as mine, sis.”

Lomadia looked like she wanted to say something, but instead a grunt of pain escaped her.

“Are you okay?” asked Xephos, who was clearly in a state of panic, standing next to the bed and holding Lomadia's hand.

“Stop asking me that,” growled Lomadia as she gasped for breath. 

“How often have the contractions been coming?” asked Lalna as he started moving equipment around. 

“Every few minutes,” said Lomadia.

Lalna nodded as he unfolded an IV drip. “Sounds like you're getting close. Nano, can you check her?”

“I'd say she has a couple minutes until everything kicks off,” said Nano. She and Lalna had been preparing for their baby by studying everything about childbirth that they could. Even though she wasn't a doctor, Nano knew what she was doing. 

“Holy shit...” muttered Lomadia. She looked terrified, not even noticing when Lalna put the IV in her arm. Nano had a feeling that Lomadia was scared to finally know the effects the sleeping potion would have on her baby. 

“What do you need me to do?” asked Rythian, who had been standing off to the side quietly.

“You're on healing duty,” said Lalna. “This baby is a month premature, so he'll probably need to be worked on. Focus on his lungs, because those are likely going to be under-developed. Then once the baby is taken care of, heal Lomadia if she needs it.”

Rythian nodded and stood back near the table, which now had blankets, a heat lamp, a scanner, and other tools on it. 

Lalna looked to Nano, who was kneeling at the end of the bed. “You know what you're doing?”

Nano nodded and looked at Lomadia, giving her a gentle pat on the knee. “You can trust me.”

“I do,” said Lomadia, cracking a small smile.

Lalna looked up at Xephos and Honeydew. “Okay, now you two need to step back a bit. Further. No, a bit further, keep going, there. Stay there. Don't – hey, don't move! Just hold still, or hold each others hands. There you go. Now stay!”

Lomadia gave a small cry of pain and swore so badly that Honeydew covered his ears. 

“She's ready to go,” announced Nano. She looked up at Lomadia. “Are you ready?”

Lomadia nodded.

“Okay,” said Nano. “Push.”

The next ten minutes went by in a blur. Lomadia swore in new and creative ways that none of the others had ever heard of. The whole time, Lalna monitored her vitals, Nano spoke encouraging words, Rythian waited patiently, and Honeydew and Xephos stood nervously in the corner, holding each other. 

And in an instant, it was over. Lomadia gasped with relief and fell back against her pillows. Nano stood and quickly carried the baby over to the table. Lalna and Rythian moved over as well. Xephos and Honeydew rushed over to the bedside.

“You did amazing,” gasped Xephos, looking like he was on the verge of tears. He started to say more, but Lomadia clapped her hand over his mouth.

“Listen...” she whispered.

They grew quiet and listened. At first Xephos and Honeydew didn't know what she meant, but then they heard it. 

Silence. The baby wasn't crying.

Even though it caused her immense pain, Lomadia sat up and looked over at the three huddled around the baby on the table. They were standing very still. She couldn't see her son. 

“What's happening?” she asked, her voice breaking.

They didn't answer. 

The silence lasted, and with every passing second Lomadia felt like a fist was slowly closing around her heart.

Then, suddenly, a single small cry broke the silence. The tension in the room shattered like glass as the baby started to properly cry. Lomadia breathed a long sigh of relief and fell back onto her pillows, letting the laughter and tears flow freely.

A minute later, Nano came over to the bed, carrying the tiny crying baby, bundled up in blankets. She handed him to Lomadia, who held him close. The baby stopped crying as soon as he was in his mother's arms.

“Lux...” she whispered, holding him close. “Lux...” She repeated his name, over and over. Xephos hugged them both, crying too hard to speak. 

Honeydew stood back, grinning like a fool and letting his tears run down his face. He suddenly realized how tired he was, and what a long and stressful night it had been. 

Taking a moment to catch his breath, he looked around the room. Nano and Rythian were standing off to the side of the room, but Lalna was nowhere to be found. Quietly, Honeydew left the room and went out into the living room. Sure enough, he saw Lalna sitting on the sofa, carefully taking off his prosthetic arm.

Honeydew went and sat down next to him.

“Your shoulder is bleeding,” said Honeydew once Lalna had taken the arm off. Sure enough, there was a thin stream of blood trickling down his side. 

Lalna shook his head and leaned back, looking like he hadn't slept in weeks. His crystal was starting to faintly glow again, meaning it was slowly releasing the fatigue back into his body. 

Honeydew shuffled a bit. “Could I ask... what was wrong with him...?”

Lalna closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “He was born asleep.”

“Shit...” muttered Honeydew. “What... what does that mean?”

“No idea,” mumbled Lalna, not opening his eyes. “Do me a favor and keep an eye on him these next few weeks.”

“You mean until you recover from the full moon?” asked Honeydew.

“Like I said, a few weeks,” said Lalna, his voice sounding more and more distant. “Sorry for passing out here... Won't be able to make it home...”

Honeydew gave him a gentle pat on the leg. “Don't worry, we'll get you back home. You just rest and heal.”

At that moment, Nano came into the living room.

“Honeydew, they're looking for you,” she said. “Go meet your godson.” 

Honeydew smiled widely and went back into the bedroom. Nano took his spot on the sofa. 

“So... I think I changed my mind about having a baby,” she said.

Even though Lalna was on the verge of slipping into a coma, he laughed. “Don't worry, I'll have the next one,” he mumbled. 

Nano laughed and glanced back at the bedroom.

“Rythian's son was premature too,” she said to Lalna. “He's giving them advice on how to keep their kid healthy.”

Lalna opened his eyes. “Rythian... when he's done talking, will you send him out here? I want to talk to him...”

“Will you still be awake?” asked Nano, standing up.

“I'll try.”

Nano nodded and went back into the bedroom. A minute later, Rythian emerged. 

“You wanted to talk to me?” he asked quietly, taking the spot where Honeydew and Nano had sat before. 

“You saved my life tonight,” said Lalna, staring off into space. There was still a touch of purple in his eyes. “You had no reason to come help, but you did it anyway. Why?”

Rythian looked at him thoughtfully. “You want to know why I helped you?”

“Not just tonight, either,” said Lalna, trying to keep his thoughts together. “In the past... you've helped me and saved me so many times, and for what? What have I done to help you?”

“You killed Apex,” whispered Rythian. “You helped me avenge a friend that I lost nearly ten years ago...”

“Your friend...”

“Sparks. That was his name.”

Lalna nodded. “Sparks. He was more than just your friend, wasn't he?”

Rythian stared for a moment before nodding. “He was my first partner. The first person I ever loved. Apex took him away from me. Tonight... I guess I got closure.”

He stopped and looked away, not wanting Lalna to see the tears welling up in his eyes. All the memories were coming back in a flood, though he had repressed them all night. 

“He was an Enderbeast, just like you,” continued Rythian. “And it killed him. I couldn't find the cure in time. That amulet around your neck was supposed to be his... I guess... I thought that if I helped you... if I saved you... it might bring me peace. That there was one Enderbeast I managed to save. You kinda remind me of him, y'know...”

Lalna gave a small nod and looked at his prosthetic arm sitting on the table. Was it only 24 hours ago that he had fallen and injured his shoulder? It seemed like years.

Rythian sniffled a bit. “This night has been so chaotic... this is the first quiet moment I've had to actually think about what happened. This is the world where Sparks died, where Apex trapped us and infected him. But now Apex is dead. It can never hurt anybody again. And even though it still hurts to think about what happened, I've moved on. I have Zoeya and Ender.”

Lalna smiled a bit before noticing that his vision was going dark.

“So... you helped me...” He was having trouble speaking now.

Rythian turned to him. “I helped you because you're my friend.”

Lalna smiled widely. Then he closed his eyes and slumped against Rythian's shoulder, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**XXX**

**Epilogue**

Nano and Lalna sat in their bed, staring down at their newborn daughter. Nano held her, and Lalna was gently stroking her dark hair with his good hand. He wasn't wearing his prosthetic arm because he was afraid of pinching the baby by accident. 

“She looks just like you...” mumbled Lalna.

“Yeah, except her eyes,” said Nano. “Those are all you.”

As if in response, Pixel yawned and blinked her bright green eyes open for a moment. Upon seeing this, Lalna burst into tears again and buried his head in Nano's shoulder. 

Nano smiled and shook her head a bit, waiting a few minutes for Lalna to sit back up, wiping his eyes. 

“So...” stammered Lalna, trying to calm himself down, “how long do you think I have to wait before I give her her first jetpack?” 

“Two years old seems acceptable,” said Nano. “But... wait until she's five before you give her a laser gun.”

Lalna nodded. “A reasonable request...” 

Nano laughed, and she and Lalna went back to staring at their daughter. While Lux had been sickly since he was born, Pixel was strong and healthy, with eyes that glowed with a haunting intelligence. 

“Y'know, despite the labor that lasted for two days, this was probably the easiest part,” said Nano. “Do you really think we can do this? Do you think we'll make good parents?”

Lalna nodded. “It's going to be a whole new adventure, and y'know what?”

Nano looked up at him. “What?”

Lalna smiled. “I can't wait.”

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long to get up. Hope it was a nice ending, and hope everybody enjoyed this series!


End file.
